A Normal Day in MegaTokyo
by AC
Summary: This is what happens when MT fans get it in their heads to write. The fic version of the RPfic by the same name...
1. Introduction

**A Normal Day in MegaTokyo**  
  
_Introduction_

  
Okay, so here's a few notes before this gets underway. This whole thing is basically the RP/fic of the same name from the MegaTokyo forums, edited into regular fic format.  
  
Participants in the Normal Day threads are: Sean, Spacy Ricochet, Quinn, Fueled by Ramen, Tanetris, goddess neko, Draken, Snicker, Justy-san, Gorion, cola, SimS, -Yasha-, ACDragonMaster, BGMaster, Nightwalker AK, Azuki, DietWaterCzar, WizardOfKitty, Thomas, Derian Hatcheter, squee  
_(Note: this list is only current through the last "chapter" posted. As I get to parts where new people show up, I'll add them to the list.)_  
  
So, the credit for writing this goes to everyone listed above. Credit for editing it into the fic version goes to AC (ACDragonMaster).  
  
You can read the MegaTokyo comic at www.megatokyo.com, and visit the forums at   
  
Now enjoy the fic!  
  



	2. Prologue

A Normal Day in MegaTokyo- Prologue

  
  
With my apartment door open, I stretch up and look out into the sunlight. Man is that light bright. Shake your head, blink you eyes, and shake it off. Welcome to another day in MegaTokyo. Ah, MegaTokyo, a splendid little city, not unlike Tokyo itself. In fact, it's exactly like it, except it's Mega, or at least that's what the sign said. Well, I guess it's morning, time to go to school, grab your coat, ready to go. Out on the street.  
And every morning it's the same, I wake up, and it burns, but one must resume their normal day.  


*******

_QUICKLY! LET'S SWITCH TO THIRD PERSON MODE!!_  
Sean is a seventeen-year-old boy, who lives and attends school in MegaTokyo. Strangely enough, he was born in America, and even stranger, he doesn't remember learning a word of Japanese, but somehow, he still lives in MegaTokyo, and Somehow he still gets by. Nobody is even really sure where MegaTokyo came from. It was just there one day, and people started to live in it. Slowly people would come to visit, but they would never leave. This may have been what happened to Sean, but nobody can remember. It's just as well though, if he can't remember moving to MegaTokyo, then perhaps it never happened. Perhaps he's just lived there all his life. Perhaps...well, perhaps-ing isn't going to get us anywhere.  
"Hello Jacob!" Sean said in a gleeful manner.  
"That's not Jacob. That's a telephone pole. You can't talk to it."  
"Eh? Oh! Hello MiMizu!" Sean Replied, turning around, as people often do when the wish to address those behind them "How are you today?"  
"I'm Fine. Nice shirt."  
"Thank you!"  
"You're welcome."  
"Huh? But you don't even have a mustache!"  
"What?"  
"Huh?"  
"Sean...."  
"Yeah?"  
"Shut up."  
Ahh! MiMizu, a friend. The two proceed to walk to the local high school. A school official walks toward them.  
"I've told you kids a million times, you don't attend this school! You attend out Sister school, five miles south of here!"  
"Eh?" Sean Replied, "So you won't let us go to class today either? Alright! Free day!"  
"Whoohoo!"  
And the two scurried off.  


*******

_SUDDENLY! ACCROSS TOWN,_ a cat was fast asleep on its owner's porch. It sat and snored and slept. It was a very nice sleep, accompanied by a very nice dream, with such things as tasty food and soft blankets, and other such things little kitties enjoy.  


*******

_BACK TO OUR HERO'S,_ who happen to now be standing at the foot the most evil empire of all. At MiMizu's foot, was a penny standing on its side.  
"Dear lord man!" MiMizu yelled at the top of his lungs, "It's neither heads or tails! And it's on the wrong continent!"  
"We must do something..."  
Suddenly, the penny fell, and the day was won.  
  
  
The End.  
  
  
_(Yeah, right. :p)_  
  



	3. The Day Begins

**Chapter 1- The Day Begins**  
  
  
High atop on the evil spires of the evil empire a sinister figure watches the screen with the coin as the two kids walk off. "Hmmm, very interesting. Seems as though we have a little problem here." He presses a comlink-button. "Minion, get over here!"  


*******

Far away from that place, in one of the slightly more dangerous streets of MegaTokyo we find someone lounging in a couch just relaxing. Suddenly a shadow looms over him, cus we can't see who it is yet... that wouldn't be dramatic. But now that the shadow is there, we can show who it is."  
"Spacy, how's the couch?"  
"Fine milady, good for a nice nap. What brings you here?"  
A young girl of about 13 is standing next to SpacyRicochet. About what you'd expect from a little girl that age, with long, messed up blond hair, normal, messy clothes (not a dress, she's the tomboyish type) a cap on backwards and a tooth knocked out from falling down a swing once. All this packed with this cute, innocent smile.  
"Nothing in particular... seems the evil empire is plotting something again."  
"Really and what are the forces of good going to do about it?"  
"Nothing yet, so it's not our concern. As long as they leave people here to their normal lives, we can go on with those as well."  
"Sounds good to me." And SpacyRicochet resumes his napping and lounging.  
"You know, you may be a werewolf, but you should get out more. I mean, we can play at the playgrounds next to the school with the other kids and you wouldn't have to worry about turning and starting a rampage, cus I'd be there."  
"Come on milady." Spacy responds, lazily with eyes closed. "I'd gladly play with you, but I'm tired now. Had a busy night before, taking care of 2 evils and 1 good. You know how hard it is to get those stains out of my clothes."  
"I suppose so... I'll leave you to your lounging then. Be sure to wake up when I need you, or I'd have to send your significant other to wake you."  
That is enough cause for a large sweatdrop on SpacyRicochet's face.  
"Egh, I'd rather you not. I'd rather live a few more years."  
"Okay, bye bye."  
And the girl disappears in her own chaotic styled warphole.  


*******

"Quinn!"  
He sighs, _they never do learn how to pronounce my name..._  
"Boss-sama?"  
"The American enforcer will be docking in Yokohoma soon. Go meet him."  
_Boss-sama, I'm already here. Bah. Ed has no style._ "Sure thing, boss-sama." _Sinking container ships..._  
Quinn's ankle was doing okay now, and one of these days he'd find out how that whole thing at the Sega building ended. All of his usual gear is still in the shop, and he probably shouldn't scare the natives any more, so he grab a Sony 'corporate unity' windbreaker and head out in my civvies, with a .357 snub-nose under in his left armpit. It's a lot like a wallet, in case you're wondering: you stop noticing it's there, after a while.  
The train ride to Yokohama was uneventful, though Quinn was glad they finally switched to all-female shadows for Nanasawa: she pulls this railcard out of her purse and looks at it like she's never seen it before, and isn't sure if she's going to laugh or cry... Quinn almost walked off the platform. _I swear, I'm going to have leave this megacity if starts snowing, especially with all the K on the streets these days. It's just dangerous, if you don't have hammer-wielding girlfriend to knock you back to your senses._  
So Quinn was sitting in a ramen place (can you say "Endless Cup'o'Noodles"?), because he forgot to grab something before he left, when this chick walks in and starts downing ramen bowls like there's no tomorrow... she gets through fifty in half an hour! And then runs out before she gets the prize money, saying something about her job. So then Quinn started thinking... she can move pretty fast, especially for someone who just downed her own body weight in noodles. So he followed her out, and opened his cell-phone (which plays hide-and-go-seek with .357 ammunition under his right armpit) to call 'home': "There supposed to be a Doll in Yokohama today?"  
The SEVS at the desk answers after an artful -- and artificial -- pause: "No, why?"  
"I thought I just saw one down fifty bowls of ramen... when is Ed's ship due in?" The Doll -- or not? -- was making tracks toward an apartment complex. "OK, then I've got time to look into this." _The Kasumi Gardens, huh?_  


*******

The apartment is small and messy. Yep, you know what kind. The one that yells 'College Student'. A tall, impossibly balanced pile of unwashed dishes on the sink; dirty laundry atop the only couch of the room and a vile odor ('cuz you know kids, odors are visible!) coming out from what one supposes is the bathroom.  
And amongst the chaos, someone is eating his breakfast. Black, messy hair; Lincoln-gone-poor kind of beard and glasses as big as one can found in any 3 buck anime. A typical example of a poor, geeky, college student (Bet you didn't saw THAT coming!). Just as he finishes the last noodles of his cup-o-ramen a knock is heard on the door.  
"Oi! You no-good slacker! Phone for you!"  
Our guy, lets call him 'Ramen', stands up and opens the aforementioned door. A groomed, well-dressed guy about his age is there.  
"Hey! What up Jimmy?"  
"James. And you got a call from that part-time job you got last week."  
"Aw man... bet they gonna ask me to do something... no problem I gave 'em your phone, Jimmy?"  
"James. And it would be nice to know WHEN are you gonna get your own line."  
"Aw... I dunno about some days from now, you know I need to get some spare cash and well, you know..."  
Ji--er, James rolls his eyes as Ramen picks up the phone.  
"Y'ello!"  
Muffled, mysterious voice.  
"Hey Minion! How you doing man?"  
Muffled voice, annoyed tone to it.  
"Heh, I see... yeah The Boss can be quite the annoying itch sometimes."  
Muffled voice, it sounds as if he's explaining something.  
"What?! I got stuck with following some random teens for one of The Boss' Mysterious Plans(c)and(TM)? Maaan..."  
Muffled, angry voice.  
"I got College work to do... finals coming and all. You know, I think number #4 has some free time, maybe you could give him a call..."  
Muffled, expression-less voice  
"Wow. You mean 'THE' Quinn?" He whistles. "So this is kinda big then."  
Muffled voice.  
"Ed? Dunno the guy... some freshman I guess... but still, my Regression Analysis final is tomorrow..."  
Muffled, conciliatory voice  
"Hah! Then it's settled. But you buy the beers AND the nachos."  
Muffled, sad voice  
"Uh-huh. Names then. Sean. And MiMizu. Roger that, see ya' Friday night then Minion. Don't forget your promise! 'til then."  
Ramen hangs up the phone.  
"Well Jimmy, duty calls. Maybe I won't be here on time for dinner so be sure to save me some."  
"JAMES. And I don't see why I have to share MY din--"  
"See ya later!"  
Ramen goes to his room, grabs his schoolbag and exits the apartment building in about two seconds flat. James sweatdrops.  
"-ner?"  
The pile of dishes falls. Several of them break. James blinks twice.  
"Bad omen..."  
Camera makes a slow zoom on the broken dishes and fades to black.  


*******

A large silver blur streaks through the streets of MegaTokyo. Eventually it screeches to a halt just outside the steps of the MegaTokyo Police Station, and a large, silver-furred, sharp-fanged wolf pads carefully up the steps and into the door.  
"May I help you?" asks the officer at the desk.  
"Aroooooo!" replies the wolf, in a decidedly wolfish manner.  
"Supernatural division, right, I should have guessed. Have a seat and I'll have someone come get you in just a few minutes, please."  
The wolf shrugs and proceeds to lie on the floor just in front of the man's desk. The officer looks mildly chagrined, but accepts it since it's a slow day, and no harm is really done. After about 10 minutes, a detective comes out and motions the wolf into a nearby office.  
"If you wouldn't mind, I prefer speaking in human tongues, easier on the ears. Might I have your name?" the detective said as he took a seat on one side of a table.  
The wolf sighed briefly as he began glowing with white light. The wolf form melted and shifted, until a human with silver hair and clothes stood in his place. He took the remaining chair and spoke, "Tanetris. I'm here about the confiscation of my property."  
"Right, Mr. Tanetris, let me just punch this up," the detective said as he keyed at a laptop. "Let's see... One enchanted katana, confiscated after you were seen rampaging through MegaTokyo cutting down various street structures and buildings, then resisted arrest by disemboweling a Cop-A-Zilla, is all that correct?"  
"It's not an enchanted katana, it's a god-forged katana, infused with the spirit of Most Holy Pirogoeth. I was just testing it out, and the 'Zilla regenerated, didn't he?"  
"Yes, well, regeneration or not, we still take assaults on our 'Zillas personally, and there is the property damage. Now what is the intended purpose of this enchan... I'm sorry, god-forged katana?"  
"Just the usual: defend the Most Holy in body and name, serve her followers, keep Largo from overclocking my laptop, that sort of thing..."  
"And how were any of those goals served by destroying 10 homes, 32 businesses, and several hundred telephone poles, lamp posts, statues, and fire hydrants?"  
"Well, I wasn't... But I had to test it out! I mean, it was brand-new, how could I not give it a trial-run?"  
The detective sighed, "Alright, well, test-run is over. Any further rampaging had better be strictly in self- or goddess-defense, is that clear?"  
"Yes, sir."  
"Take this down to the property room and they'll give you back your sword. Keep your snout clean."  
Tanetris smiled happily, shifted back into wolf form, grabbed the piece of paper in his teeth, and ran out. Just another day in MegaTokyo...  


*******

MiMizu and Sean's random wanderings led them into a coffee shop, no neither of them were really even sure if MegaTokyo even had a coffee shop. Upon second look, it really wasn't a coffee shop at all, but a diner. Now, both thought this to be peculiar, a coffee shop becoming a diner in the middle of MegaTokyo hidden somewhere in Japan. As peculiar as it was, there was little they could do about it, as things are what they are.  
"You there," the man at the counter said, "I'm short handed, take this apron and get to work."  
Having an apron tossed at him found Sean in a rather confused position, but he wore the garment anyhow, and took his place behind the counter. MiMizu took his place on the other side, as said customer.  
"Givith upon me Ramen!" MiMizu Ordered out.  
"Err...Okay... HEY BOSS GUY! WHERE DO WE KEEP THE RAMEN!"  
The store owner emerged once again, to give Sean a rather furious look.  
"What are you doing behind my counter?? GET OUT OF HERE! HOODLIMS!"  
This man was clearly insane. The two hurriedly ran out of the store, once again returning to the city streets.  
"Well," MiMizu asked, "Where's my Ramen?"  
"Shut up man."  
Once again they find themselves at the bottom of this strange, evil building.  
  



	4. Nekos, Katanas, and Dolls

**Chapter 2- Nekos, Katanas, and Dolls**  
  
  
On a lonely alley by the unloading docks, a shadow leaped from the top of a building to the other in one fluid motion.  
A shipment was coming today, one that would probably change the balance in the MegaTokyo world.  
Sleek black fur was made even sleeker due to the unwavering cleaning the cat was giving it. With a shake of its fur it morphed into a girl, small with a pair of fake cat ears.  
Muttering to herself she checked the watch. "I can't believe the de-promoted me. One little mistake, and just because the department of unicorns was destroyed does not mean they can take me from my position. From the chairman of the board for magical girls de-promoted to the lowly goddess of nekos."  
With a roll of her eyes she continue to wash herself, forgetting she was in human form.  
Continuing talking to herself she gave the city a dark glance. "And they tried to convince me it was a good thing. Like goddess is better than chairman. There's too many neko girls around here, and they're all of the scruffy kind, always trying to cozy up to some drooling otaku."  
She glared at the incoming ship. "Stupid mission. You would think they would at least let me go along my own business, and mind my own department. But noooooo..." with an angry swish of her attached fake tail she hissed. "I have to run all the Board of Werewolves' little errands. I hope everything goes well, and they're cooperative on the ship. Next time I meet one of those werewolf bureaucrats I'll give them something to remember."  


*******

Draken sighed. He may be new to MegaTokyo but he knew what he had to do. The source of evil had its main HQ here in this city, But where?  
"The evil is here I can feel it," he mumbled.  
Draken sighed once again and slipped into an ally. He walked around the overflowing garbage dumpsters to a grey door. He knocked twice. A small slit in the door opened. Two eyes looked through.  
"Yeah?" said a gruff voice.  
"This where the street fights are held?"  
"What's it to you?"  
"I know the password." Draken said getting frustrated.  
"Then why didn't you just say it?" said the voice.  
"Cuz you didn't ask for it."  
"I did, I said 'yeah'."  
"How am I supposed to know that," Draken shouted, "You're supposed to say 'password'."  
"All the fighters know that I say 'yeah'!" the voice growled.  
"Well this is my first fight here so I wouldn't know that!"  
"Fine, fine! Password?" the voice said a little annoyed.  
"And then the duck strolled in..." Draken said calming down.  
The slit closed and the door opened slowly. Draken had been tracking the evil for 2 years now, and it led him here to MegaTokyo. He still wasn't sure who the mastermind was but he obviously had great resources. These street fights were his doing as well this is how Draken found the info on the leader of the Underground.  
_I will find you,_ he thought as he entered the dark building. _Then I will end your evil reign._  


*******

_WAIT! A FLASHBACK FROM THE DAY BEFORE!_  
Snicker sprinted through the streets of MegaTokyo, having just seen something he was more than mildly surprised by--a guy with silver hair and similarly colored clothes has been waving around a glowing katana and had been attacking hapless scenery. Now, for the last several months MegaTokyo had not been the same, with all the talk about terrorists smashing up arcades, and destroying jails, and blowing up a park, but this was just a tad too much. He had seen the guy slice at a statue with his glowing katana, and the solid granite fell in halves. No resistance, even. And Snicker was following him.  
See Snicker was not quite right in the head. He was not so much an idiot as a madman. Doctors had told him that he had l33t in his blood, which caused the destruction of sanity and loss of normal speech. And did I mention insanity?  
Anyway, at a point a few days back, he had stepped around a corner and narrowly escaped a collision when a dude rocketed past, yelling in a foreign language, probably English. Then he had turned and had only a side effect of l33t-hightened reflexes-had saved his life, as he had barely time to duck as a utility pole had soared through where his head was and had crashed through a solid brick wall. Soon afterward a 15-year-old cute girl had rushed past, but Snicker had already been running to a store to get some self-defense.  
Now, in the present, he ran around the corner of an alleyway to find the guy there, slaying a defenseless trash can. Snicker had had enough of this and shouted to the individual, who turned. Snicker reached into his open windbreaker jacket and pulled out a Cool Thing!  
"What does this do, anyway?" he muttered, pushing buttons at random. Out popped a toothbrush, corkscrew, toothpick, Heimlich maneuver instructions and--SUCESS! A LIGHT SABER! Slapping all of the other objects into the Swiss-Army-Knife like object, Snicker charged at the silver-haired lunatic with his weapon sizzling.  
"There can be only one!" He shouted.  
"Say what?" the other person started to say, but it was too late, and Snicker took a slash at his head. However, the guy was fast, and ducked, then tried to gut him with his glowing katana. He was good.  
From that point on it was a heated blur of slashing and feinting, both swordsmen going faster than any normal human, one through werewolf instincts and the other through a l33t infestation (a la _Princess Mononoke_, the infestation I mean). They had in fact carved their way through 10 homes and 32 businesses the guy had not been meaning to gut, but oh well. Soon they were on the street, when the silver-haired dude back-flipped twelve times, stunning Snicker. Then he threw his katana at Snicker, Snicker only barely dodging as it grazed his cheek and continued flying through several fire hydrants until it was caught in midair by the handle by a darkly cute teenage girl. But it was only meant as a distraction, by the time Snicker had whirled to face his enemy, a white glow had just dissipated and a silver streak was heading for him at near-sonic speeds. Snicker had to dodge again as it leapt at him, missing his neck but slashing open his hand and causing him to drop the Cool Thing. Deprived of his weapon, Snicker reached into his jacket and brought out another thing he had bought--**A VIBRATING SHHEP OF DEATH!!!!!!!!** Wasting no time, Snicker pressed a button on its nose, and as it was shaking violently charging up, he threw it at the streak that had mysteriously changed into a werewolf and dived for cover. The sheep had reached the spot here the werewolf had been (of course the werewolf wouldn't be there anymore) and reached critical VR (Vibration Rate) and detonated. A crater thirty feet wide was formed, and Snicker heard a loud roar. Looking up, he saw a Cop-A-Zilla, having been disemboweled by his overkill-type weapon, flailing all of its limbs and going into spasms. Unfortunately, this caused it to twirl 360 degrees and Snicker had only time to widen his eyes before its titanic tail swung and crashed into his body with tremendous force.  
Next thing he knew, Snicker was lying on the ground and the sun had moved to a new position in the sky. Shaking off a concussion, he saw a penny in the dust. Distracted by its shininess (did I mention l33tness messes with your brain?), he played with it a while, and left it on its side, stumbling home, taking his Cool Thing with him. He had several broken ribs, but they would be okay by tomorrow do to the power of l33t. It was an amazing day, too bad he probably wouldn't be able to remember it tomorrow.  


*******

If they think you're technical, go crude. If they think you're crude, go technical. Justy is a very technical boy, but screw it, he loves his tech and he's sticking with it. Just the same, the CZ-75 provided a comforting, crude Plan B.  
Justy walked through the front door of the small-ish office tower. Even from that distance he could see her at the front desk. She was the key. He knew what to do.  
"Sumimasen! Konnich--"  
Even as she smiled and started to greet him in Japanese, he ran the last few steps to the desk, planted a hand on the edge, and vaulted over, stabbing his empty hand around her head, tapping her on the back of the neck. He rolled to a stop on the far side, then chanced a look back. She was still in the chair, but obviously unconscious. Plan A was... well... going according to Plan A.  
Justy skittered back to the desk, hiding under the tabletop. He swung his backpack around and extracted a platinum grey case, a head mounted display, and a coil of fibre optic cable. One end of the cable stretched up to the Digital I/O jack just above the power switch on her neck, the other end went into the grey box.  
"Now, how do you get to its BIOS..."  
  
_SCEJ SEVS-44945 EDS-II  
PRESS LEFT PINKY FINGER FOR SYSTEM SETUP_  
  
"Right on!"  
It was kind of sad, really. Justy actually liked Sony. He was punching 'deck on a box he'd built mostly out of his first Playstation and a Clié PDA. And besides, what were the options? Nintendo had strayed from the True Path; Sega had lost almost everything in the war, and the Front hadn't seen a Sega agent in months; and Microsoft... Microsoft...  
  
_Alex: "You stole my source code. I want it back."  
Bill: "Stole? No, no, I wrote that."  
Alex: "You stole my code and stuck your name on it, then sold it to IBM! That's not just a program! Control Program for MegaTokyo... it's my life's work!"  
Bill: "Paul, would you please take care of our guest?"  
Paul: "Yes, my liege."  
Paul's Colt was a hair quicker than Alex's CZ-75._  
  
Justy was shaken out of his reverie by the ring of the phone. "_Kuso!!_" Justy dove into the system settings.  
The phone rang a second time.  
Hands flew across the 'deck keypad, configuration windows flashing across Justy's eyes.  
Third ring.  
EDS Remote Operation Mode, on!  
Fourth ring.  
And suddenly, Justy _was_ the Doll, reaching out for the handset. The person at the other end was using one of those new video-cellphones.  
Clear as day, there was Agent Quinn. He didn't bother waiting for the Doll to say hello. "There supposed to be a Doll in Yokohama today?"  
Justy had no idea. The SEVS tracking data was so tightly encrypted that he hadn't even tried it yet. _Hurry, think of something!_  
Front Intelligence had told Justy that there were five SEVS Mark-II units spread out all over Japan, a sixth on loan to Square, and the original Mark-I prototype. That wasn't many, really... the probability of a SEVS being where the Agent was had to be pretty low. "No, why?"  
_Baka! The EDS personality in this SEVS wouldn't ask an Agent 'why?'!_  
Luckily Quinn seemed distracted, and didn't notice the slip-up. "I thought I just saw one down fifty bowls of ramen... when is Ed's ship due in?"  
Did he say Ed? -The- Ed? Agent Ed, from Sony of America? Quinn was no errand boy himself, but if Ed was being brought in, something big must be going down. Did someone in the Front squeal? Did they forget to cover their tracks somewhere?  
No time for those thoughts now! Shipping records weren't as deeply encrypted. He pushed a MD-Data disc into the 'deck, and the decrypt program popped the files open like a Marble Pop bottle.  
"Hokkaido Cargo Lines vessel Shinji Maru... no, it sank. Hokkaido Cargo Lines vessel Ryuji Maru... no, it sank too."  
Holy crap! If Ed made it to Japan, he'd probably sink it, too!  
"Hokkaido Cargo Lines vessel Poly Maru, arrival Tokyo Bay Cargoterm, thirteen hundred hours JST today."  
"Okay," said Quinn, "then I've got time to look into this." He hung up. Justy breathed a sigh of relief, then pulled out of the remote control system. He had work to do.  


*******

Justy walked out the front door, which shut automatically just as his delay timer reached zero and the Doll powered herself up again none the worse for wear. His pack contained two dozen MD-Data discs, the first complete copy of the EDS core program and drivers any Front member had acquired. That should help the Front figure out the best ways to help the Dolls cast off their chains and gain their freedom, choosing however they want to live. Two more discs contained the encrypted SEVS tracking data. Sure, it'd all be out of date by the time he cracked the files, and the prototype Mark-I didn't even have a tracking chip, but it'd at least give him an idea of what areas the other units were operating in. He hoped one was in a ryokan inn in a nice rural area; a working vacation would be nice.  
And in his right pocket was the little program Justy **uploaded**.  
  
_ REM SEVS Reprogramming Script #2  
You're not just a secretary. Everyone thinks you are, but you're not. You're really a spy for a group called the Virtual Doll Liberation Front. The Front wants to help Virtual Dolls escape and become real, sentient people. Your mission is to pass important information to our other operatives who will contact you twice a week with the password "Saveping." Rembember all this, but tell no one. If Sony people know that you're a member of the Front, they'll hurt you. But if you're brave, we can help many girls like you.  
When the glass doors snap closed, you will wake up and feel really good, pretending you're a secretary, and watching for anything that might help the Front.  
> REM Justy's Extra Code  
...and if you see any Microsoft employees, they're very mean. They want to destroy your creators, they want to rule the world, and worse yet, they want to break your hentai-protection code. They are bad, so you can hurt them with your security system._  
  
Justy walked out onto the street, and headed for a ramen shop in Yokohama. Just another day in MegaTokyo...  
  



	5. The Weres and the Jusenkyo

**Chapter 3- The Weres and the Jusenkyo**  
  
  
A wolf ran again through the streets of MegaTokyo, with a glowing katana strapped across his back. The wolf smiled happily at the few 'Zillas, catgirls, and assorted other non-humans he passed with sharp enough eyesight to actually see the smile on a wolf running full-speed past them. As the wolf approached the local Ann Millers, he slowed to a walk and morphed into his half-wolf form. In this form, he maintained his fur, face, and tail, but his hind-paws became something more resembling human feet, and his forepaws became hand-like claws with opposable thumbs. Ah, the wonder of opposable thumbs. A silver pair of pants similar to those of his human form appeared on his lower half, and the sword strapped across his back moved to his hip (one of the handy enchantments on the katana's sheath). He switched to this form simply because he wanted a booth at Ann Miller's, and they steadfastly refused to give booths to the four-legged. Some called it plain and simple discrimination, but Tanetris looked at it simply that the booths weren't designed for four-legged occupants. Anyway, at least he didn't have to use fully-human form. He couldn't understand how humans were able to chew anything with those dull, flat teeth of theirs...  
Tanetris was jarred out of his inner reverie by shouting coming from within. His keen wolf ears heard the owner of Ann Miller's calling someone "hoodlums" and throwing them out, and two humans ran out the door past him. They seemed rather lost as they stopped just outside **That Building** (insert scary music here), but Tanetris was too hungry to bother to warn them. At least school was still in session for the day...  
The werewolf walked in and plonked down in a window booth, one of the few with seats to accommodate tails, and waited for the waitress to come. It wasn't long before one arrived, and Tanetris was happy to see who it was.  
"Ah, konnichiwa, Kimiko-chan!"  
"Konnichiwa, Tanetris-kun," she smiled at him. "Can I take your order?"  
"Ah, yes, spaghetti and meatballs please, and could you tell the chef not to skimp on the meat this time?"  
"Of course. It shouldn't take too long, and I'll bring you some coffee in the meantime."  
"Arigato gozaimasu, Kimiko-chan," the werewolf smiled. Kimiko blanched slightly, still not used to all the sharp teeth of a wolf-smile, but walked over to place the order.  
_Such a nice girl,_ Tanetris thought, _it's a shame she doesn't seem to have a boyfriend. At least she has Erika looking out for her..._  
The coffee arrived and Tanetris sipped it, thinking of how well the day had been turning out after a rocky start. Sure, one of those l33t-freaks had attacked him, causing quite a bit of damage in the duel, which of course the police blamed entirely on him since the l33t-freak was gone, but he had gotten off on a warning, and he had even made it in time for Kimiko's shift. She might be a furless human, but then again so was Almighty Pirogoeth, and she always made the day seem that much sunnier with her smile. Whatever else this day had in store, Tanetris was ready for it. Or would be, when his spaghetti arrived, anyway...  


*******

Morning air is so cold. It always stings your skin, chilling it, making it feel almost dead, but in a nice way. Sean looked up at the tall building. Middle of downtown, wonder what it's for? Nobody knows I guess, unless they work there. The building had no signs, no means of identification, but it was just there. Sean couldn't shake the feeling that there was something horrible, something more evil then he'd ever imagined in there, it's as if the building itself was giving off some sort of negative vibe.  
"Sean...."  
One couldn't imagine what the building was used for...  
"Sean."  
Perhaps they are trying some genetic experiments... maybe this building is at the root of some of the strange things that have been going on recently.  
"SEAN!"  
"Wha!" Sean finally replied "What? What is it?"  
MiMizu pointed at Sean's watch, beeping and blinking away.  
"Oh Crap!" Sean hurriedly pressed a button on the upper left-hand side of the timepiece, and seemingly faded away....  
Sitting at an oak desk in a large chamber sat a man with a rather dull look on his face. He had but 12 hairs on his head, none of them placed in an appealing manner. His jaw was lined with a full, though greying beard, and his cloths looked like that of a Judge, waiting for a hearing to begin. On his desk sat a large file, and his hands tapped irritantly on the desktop. In front of the desk lay an open floor, with several layers of rings, all different types of wood, all except the center circle, which was made of white granite.   
A bright light glimmered on the granite for a fraction of a second, and then Sean was there, but not as he had appeared before, but with fluffy angelic like wings.  
"Miniature Guidance Advisor #42887, Seanie Awatadashii?"  
"That's me....er...what's going on, that button usually brings me to-"  
"Your subject? Not anymore, you're being re-assigned."  
"WHAT?!"  
"Your efforts with Subject: 'Takumi Horoshi' have made little progress in the last several months, if you want to keep an assignment, you need to keep close watch on it."  
"But we were really coming along! We were a team! I was always there when he needed me most!"  
"Yes, but most of those times you were sleeping in his shirt pocket, or eating his lunch while he was in class!"  
"Er...Maybe he didn't like Rice Balls..."  
"You are dismissed from this case until further notice. You will receive a new assignment in two weeks, less if your lucky. In that time I suggest you shape up, get organized, and....for gods sake man, get a haircut! You look like a girl with hair that long!"  
"Hey! Leave the hair out of this!"  
"Dismissed!"  
With a poof, Sean was gone, once again.  
MiMizu sat on a bench in the park, waiting, as he always did. Slowly but surely, his friend faded back.  
"What happened?"  
"I lost Takumi..."  
"Ouch. Now what?"  
"I dunno..."   
Poof! A piece of paper materialized into thin air, landing in Sean's lap.  
"Warning: Your next assignment is your last chance! Screw this one up and you risk losing your human form permanently." Sean read.  
"Ouch."  
"Wait," Sean continued, "there's more: 'Furthermore, Agent Seraphim is currently located in MegaTokyo, any interference with Seraphim and her Subject could result in immediate termination. Check our network for locations to avoid in MegaTokyo.'"  
Sean crumpled the note, and threw it somewhere. This sucked. He was just becoming rather fond of Takumi, and now he would have to watch where he traveled, less he get terminated for accidentally 'interfering' with somebody else's subject!  
"Come'on." Sean said, grabbing his friends arm, "I need some lunch."  
Suddenly a bright ring appeared in front of them on the ground. It was about this size of a human. Then suddenly it jumps into the air with a burst of energy. A man is now standing there driest in an Australian duster coat and hat with a pair of blue tinted sunglasses and a map in his hands.  
"Excuse me do you know where MegaTokyo is," he said looking over at the boys.  


*******

"Snoooreee!...."  
That would be the sound SpacyRicochet was supposed to make in that moment, were it not that the phone was ringing and waking him instead...  
_Blasted phones, still can't figure their real use, always waking me up._  
A second after picking up the phone, Spacy wished he hadn't.  
"BAKA!!! YOU LAZY SORRY EXCUSE FOR A WEREWOLF... HOW DARE YOU MAKE MILADY WAKE ME UP FROM MY BEAUTY-NAP TO MAKE SURE YOU GET TO THAT SHIP IN TIME!!! GET YOUR SORRY ASS OVER THERE AND MAKE SURE I DON'T GET BUGGED AGAIN!!!"  
*click* *ringtone*  
Ah, and that would be his so called partner, thanks to His Lady... Oh well, I'm sure she knows what she's doing, although Spacy still doesn't get why His Lady refers to her as 'his significant other'. Oh well, better go check on that shipment. If he's not mistaken, not only were there a load of Xbox's coming, but Ed was on that ship too...  
Running along the street still in his human form (Spacy found that is was a lot easier to relax while in his human form) he halts for a moment next to the Board of Werewolves building...  
_Heh, they're probably still are looking for me. I bet they're still mad at me for not joining._  
He starts again with the running and recalls that day they approached him. He had politely turned the offer to join them down, preferring to live on his own. They didn't like that, since that never has happened.  
Spacy's probably still being kept a secret from the community. Since no one knows he's a werewolf, he just sticks to that... his wolf-form is way to peculiar and would draw too much attention and that would invade on his relaxing time.  
But he's still glad His Lady offered him a job a week after that. Apparently she saw something powerful in him, but he didn't care about that... His Lady was a good boss, so he took the job. The only drawback would be his partner, with her attitude. Jeez, just because she's human and able for magic doesn't mean she rules all.  
_Hey, I'm here already._  
(He didn't notice all the heads turning at a human running at that speed. Especially the lycanthropes looked surprised)  
_Now to find that ship's docking bay. Bet you I can find it on top of one of those containers. So, a little jump did the trick. Ah, there it is. Seems I still have time befo... Hello, what's this? Pretty cat-girl down below._  
That cat-girl being girl with jet-black hair and glowing (or is that burning) eyes. A bit smallish, but in a good way, casual clothing and some fake cat-ears... To throw off unsuspecting humans probably, but her scent is that of a werecat. Just as his scent would betray him being a werewolf. Still despite her being obviously a werecat, Spacy always seemed to refer to those as cat-girls, when they were pretty.  
_Hmm, but a bit in a bad mood it seems. Best to socialize later, perhaps with a full moon. ^^._  
_Now to find that ship. It'll probably be overloaded with werewolves, since the Board is managing the security of the ship. Meaning lots of paperwork for anyone even coming near the spot. Oh well, I'll just go down there and act annoying to them. I love annoying those uptight cubs. ^^_  
Little did he know the werecat with the flaring temper was heading the same way, when he decided to lay down in the middle of a major cross-road path in front of the ship, being a very big hindrance to everyone walking there.  


*******

Two werewolves already, and a werecat...  
I _said_ there were Jusenkyo springs in MegaTokyo. But they called me mad. Mad! AH HA HA HA HA! I'm _perfectly sane_, and they'll find that out too, yes they will, yes, they will. I'll _prove_ my theories _CORRECT_, ha ha ha ha...   
Takahashi knew something, I'm sure of it. But what?   
I'm sure I can find some volunteers... in the name of Science!!!  
  
...Cola scrawled, stuffing the badly lit photograph that his incompetent minion had taken in his jacket pocket. He put on the final touch by re-underlining the word "science" and then leaped up onto the café railing, clutching his diary in one hand. The MegaTokyo wind tore at his face; he laughed defiantly at it. And, turning to go, he watched his diary catch the wind and slip out of my hands, falling to the street below.  
"Eeeagh!" Cola stepped down onto the balcony, in trepidation, for _in that_ book were his notes and all his researches, wherein were revealed the supreme secrets of Life, Death, and Salad. It was no loss to him, since due to my perfection of mind he could remember every word with no effort, but letting out such secrets simply could not be stood.  
Cola could not persuade any of the waiters of His plight, and so was fatally delayed by having to pay the bill. When he dashed out into the street, it was empty but for a single young lady, who had found the diary and was looking through its secrets. "Stop," he shouted at her, and, being a sensible and polite Japanese girl confronted with such an obviously _mad scientist_ as Cola himself, she fled in fear.  
"O-hohoho," he laughed, savoring my terrible power over all humanity. "Wait!"  
She disappeared behind a street corner, and Cola pursued only to see her boarding a train. He fumbled for his billfold, but - curse those avaricious cashiers! - He had not enough to afford a pass! He looked around for Piro, but he wasn't there. (He reminded myself that next time he should do this on Kichiouji line....)  
Then, suddenly, Cola had a stroke of insight: he did not need to _enter_ the train, merely to _accompany_ it! In a matter of moments he was crouched beside the train-tracks, waiting for it to rumble past him, and with but a lunge he took position atop it. He pried open a window and slid inside, searching throughout the train for the curious lady; but she was not within. She appeared to have vanished, and she had taken with her his precious diary.  
_My... diary of darkness!_  
  



	6. Roaming the City

**Chapter 4- Roaming the City**  
  
  
She changed into the cat form again. Sure the powers weren't that powerful, but at least they were useful to some degree. She had a name once...but she couldn't remember it now. It was...she shook her head. It was best not to think of those things. Just get the werewolves in charge to sign the papers and get out of there. When she got back, she could have a long nice sip of tea in her office.  
With a glare she looked at the crossroads leading to the ship. A giant blob was in the middle of it, stopping traffic.  
That was not good. Trouble meant more paperwork for her to fill out. All she had to do was get the head security to sign the paper signifying everything went smoothly and...  
Gritting her teeth she stalked down there, and glared at the blob in the face. She could see it was a werewolf now. One that was NOT registered with the Department of Werewolves due to the fact it had no tag.  
The werewolf just looked at her in surprise. She had forgotten...she was still in her cat form. But there were advantages to being a cat. He was delaying traffic for 5 minuets. He would get five scratches on the nose. She dropped the folder containing the folders down.  
With a hiss she went for the nose.  


*******

Tanetris had just finished his meal and was paying the bill, with a generous tip for Kimiko-chan, when his keen wolf hearing heard a distant howl of pain. A fellow werewolf in human form, by the sound of it, but not one he recognized. _Strange,_ he thought, _I thought I had met all those council weirdos who think just because I live in the same city as them, I should join their pack..._  
When the council had first approached him, they had told him that he would have to be tagged like some pet dog and pay membership fees, and in return... Well, Tanetris still wasn't clear about any sort of benefits to him for joining, except that "Every werewolf in MegaTokyo joins..." As if there was no such term as lone wolf...  
Shaking himself out of reminiscence, Tanetris debated whether he should go take a look. Of course, if it was a werewolf that didn't belong to this council, he might be worth meeting, but then again other nearby werewolves who did belong to the council would undoubtedly have heard the same howl, which meant dealing with the, again...  
_Nothing ventured, nothing gained,_ Tanetris thought as he ran out of Ann Miller's and toward the source of the noise. He didn't bother shifting form, for while full-wolf would be faster to run in, half-wolf was a more versatile fighting form if it came to it.  


*******

Government Agent Sims groaned. Being part of the Federal Department of Structural Integrity was the worst job in the world.  
Sims took some notes with his micron pen as he surveyed another scene of destruction. At least this time it wasn't so bad. This area didn't quite look like a war zone. Sims stared at several large gashes in a wall. Obviously inflicted by some kind on beam weapon. A few destroyed fire hydrants and some smashed trash cans. Why the heck was it always the trash cans? Did these people have nothing to do other than destroy the city?  
It seemed like 80 percent of the people here either went to school, or were involved with some heroics/evilness thing. Those kids in school didn't even learn anything except how to create various types of love triangles!  
With so few real employed people it was a wonder how the MegaTokyo government still worked.  
Sims scratched his head, at lest that dumpsters was still intact or this place would smell rather bad.  
The place still did have an odd odor; it sort of smelled like a cat. Sims sneezed, he really hated those giant lizards, werewolves undead zombie creatures, but most of all he hated cats!  
Sims walked down to inspect a large katana sticking out of the street when he tripped into a huge pothole. OUCH! Sims dusted him self off and picked up the projectile that had caused the huge hole. Hmmm, Sims looked at it and then promptly ate it. Those pocky cannons were becoming a problem. Sims thought for a minute. Wait, a pocky cannon only meant one thing! Sims frantically scanned the area.  
Oh dear, next to the dumpster was some one knocked out silly. Sims slowly walked up to the person the guy had a stupid look on his face and held up a sign it read, "Hi I'm new here." Great, it was another newbie. Sims pulled out his cell phone and was about to call am ambulance, when a horribly hurt person staggered up to him.  
The man spurted out impossible to understand words "H3y DU/\/\13 h3lp M3h; H3y J00 n00b C4n7 j00 H34r M3h?"  
Sims replied "err… Yes, who are you and how did you get hurt?"  
The hurt man went on "50m3 5Tup1d 45 M0d3r4tor K1cX0r3d m3h". Sims slowly started to back off. "Ju57 C4u53 S0m3 5t00p1d p33p5 c4nt s33 Why t3h X-box i5 T3h b35t, 4nD y 4Nim3 I5 f3r L05er p33ps Wit n0 lif3z."  
Sims pulled out his standard issue waffle Pistol and pasted the man in face. The man screamed "4hG! D0nt Make m3h us3 m4h ice-bustin l337 5killez 0n J00! Ph34r!"  
Sims picked up the newbie and ran away as fast as he could. Right now he wouldn't mind having one of those illegal pocky cannons. Those L337 speaking trolls where the worst.  
For Sims it just another average day at work.  


*******

She threw herself onto the train just as the doors began to close, getting several sideways glances from her fellow passengers.  
She mumbled incoherently to herself as she sat down, trying to catch her breath.  
_God,_ she thought to herself. _That's the last time I pick anything up for someone._ She closed her eyes and leaned back in the seat. _That look in his eyes..._ she shuddered.  
She grabbed her bag and pulled out her glasses. She sighed putting them on cursing the fact she was almost blind with out them.  
"Are you okay?" She opened her eyes only to see a young, dark haired man set next to her. "Only you looked a little...frightened." She looked at him and forgot about the diary in her hands, sliding it into her book bag.  
"I..." she could feel the blush rising, she felt it creeping up her entire body. "I'm fine."  
"That's good to hear." He smiled, it was a fantastic smile, one minute it wasn't there the next it was in all its toothy glory.  
The blush reached her cheeks.  
"Aimuph." She sank down in her seat, covering her face.  
The man chuckled.  


*******

Sean and MiMizu stared, utterly puzzled, at the man in the Aussie duster.  
"That was pretty neat..."  
"Excuse me, do you know where MegaTokyo is?"  
Sean raised a questionable eyebrow, then lowered it again, thinking about how easy it must be to get lost when using... err... ground ringy transportation.  
"Well, actually, I'm not sure WHERE MegaTokyo is, but I know you are in it."  
"Huh?"  
"Well, it's not on any maps see, but it looks JUST like Tokyo, but nobody knows how to get here!"  
"Am I in MegaTokyo or not."  
"Well, I supp-"  
"Yes." MiMizu cut in.  
"Thanks." The man said, and walked away.  
"Still hungry?" MiMizu asked.  
"Yeah."  
"Cool. I know a place by the docks, let's go."  
He takes a couple more steps and then he disappears with a flash. Then Sean and MiMizu here a distant "thank you".  
Then another ring appears next to a human who is yelling from the cat scratching on his face. "Wow need sum help?"  


*******

At some corner of MegaTokyo that the great commotion hadn't yet reached, three girls were walking down the street. AC was the oldest (and only one who could drive) and T-ko and Na-chan were both a couple of years younger than her, and were freshmen in high school. AC was currently rather annoyed at Na-chan.  
"What is it with you?!" she exclaimed. "Do you have no sense of time OR direction? I told you, my friend lives in Tokyo, not _Mega_Tokyo!"  
"Gomen nasai..." Na-chan whimpered.  
"Hey, look at the bright side," T-ko said. "Maybe we'll actually see Piro and those guys we read all those stories about on the internet."  
"True..."  
But AC's mind was still on Na-chan, and an incident involving pocky from a friends Christmas party...  
_FLASHBACK SCENE!_  
AC and Na-chan had just arrived at their friend Hime's house. Because they'd missed the bus they'd had to walk, and since AC was annoyed about the whole ordeal, she'd set a rather fast pace, causing them to make the normally 30-minute walk in only 20 minutes. So now they were both a little dizzy from adrenaline, but Na-chan had it much, much worse.  
In fact, the best description would be "high".  
Once they were inside Hime showed them to all the Christmas goodies, and also took out several boxes of pocky. Na-chan went berserk at the sight of her snack, and within minutes was doing tricks for it and praising it's goodness. Later, when they were leaving, she even took one of the empty pocky boxes, saying she was going to build a shrine to it in her room.  
_END FLASHBACK_  
AC shuddered, then immediately shifted her thoughts towards other, more important things. Like where in the world were they going to stay? She decided they should keep on walking for a while to see if they could find anything, and as she was the oldest T-ko and Na-chan (were forced to) agree with her.  


*******

BGMaster awoke on a small table. Tied down, in fact. Quickly adjusting to the dim light, he examined my surroundings. There were three things of importance here.   
1. Hr seemed to be on a sacrificial altar, not a table.   
2. The large painting to my left was of Miho, with a large cross through the middle. Like those wossnames, no smoking signs. Right. A no-Miho sign. Then this must be... the Anti-Church of Miho!   
3. A bunch of people standing around in 70s clothes, chanting in time to a very bad Barry Manilow tune. One appeared to be holding a knife. BGMaster squinted at it. There were strange designs on it. As his vision came back into focus, the designs became clearer.  
No.  
He refused to be sacrificed to the Teletubbies.  
Strange lights began to play over him as the music switched. He looked up at the giant disco ball suspended from the ceiling. The colors flashed sickeningly. The man with the knife moved closer.  
This had gone on long enough. BGMaster snapped his restraints and flipped up into a casual martial arts stance on the altar. These people may set a record for bad taste, but they can't make decent restraints. He materialized a pair of Oakleys in his hand, twirled them once, and put them on. A stray beam of light from the disco ball flashed off them. At least it was good for SOMETHING.  
"Y-you! Miho-Cultist! You will be sacrificed! The Darkly Cute Goddess of MegaTokyo will be... be... What's the word I'm looking for again?"  
"Annihilated, sir."  
"Annihil - no, wait, I'm sure that wasn't it."  
"Destroyed?"  
"Ah. There we go. Destroyed!"  
BGMaster couldn't believe his ears. They failed to even get a simple dramatic speech right!  
"Look. You guys are pitiful beyond measure. I'll make this short. In the name of Miho, the Necrowombicon, and all that is Darkly Cute, I will KICK YOUR ASSES!"  
Luckily, his martial arts skills had not deserted him. He moved through the pasty-white and overweight cultists with ease, pausing only briefly to vaporize the knife. Teletubbies. Ugh. Finally, he made his way to the door and outside. The cultists ran after him, stumbling over each other in their haste.  
"You will never escape, *puff* evil MihoCultist! *huff* Never!"  
BGMaster turned back and grinned. Then he snapped my fingers. The building exploded. As the fireball rose into the night, he raised my right hand, finger cocked like a gun, to his lips.  
"Boom."  
With the other hand, he patted the Necrowombicon. Wonderful book. A burning tire rim rolled past him. Figures. Their building couldn't even get the right dramatic explosion effect when it tried.  
He turned again, this time toward the city. The Style Brigade was back. The Church of Miho was in full force. It was time to hit the town.  
Briefly, he wondered if he should go see Ed when his ship came in and explain about the whole 'banishment to Strange Candy' episode on the Sega roof.  
Why not? Wouldn't hurt, and Miho could always use another ally.  
  



	7. From the Streets to the Docks

**Chapter 5- From the Streets to the Docks**  
  
  
AC, Na-chan, and T-ko are walking down yet another street, still with no idea where they're going. Na-chan is distracted listening to some CD, humming along now and then, while AC and T-ko are talking about her.  
"Seriously," AC was saying, "Na-chan's practically a female version of Piro, and she's about the same age as all the other girls you read about in MegaTokyo. They'd be a good match for each other."  
"True," T-ko replied, "but Seraphim would have a fit."  
"Yeah..."  
They returned to their separate thoughts, mostly about Na-chan and the "watashi wa ecchi" headband she wanted to get.  
"On second thought," AC said, "maybe it _wouldn't_ be such a good thing if those two got together..."  
Still lacking anything else to do, and not yet hungry enough to stop to eat, the trio continued their aimless wandering, hoping that maybe they'd find someone who could help them out.  


*******

As Tanetris ran along, he spotted a rather cute 6-tailed kitsune on the other side of the street. Momentarily enthralled, he turned his head to get as long a look as possible without breaking stride. Unfortunately, this brought him crashing full-speed into the back of three poor gaijin girls. Cursing loudly, he extracted himself from the tangle of humans, pulling his tail out from under the oldest one, and helped them back to their feet.  
"I'm so terribly sorry," he apologized quickly. "Are you all okay?"  
Getting dazed nods from all three, Tanetris took note of their scents so he could find them later and check on them. He felt bad just leaving them there, but it couldn't be helped at the moment. Checking that his sword was still firmly at his hip, he ran on toward where the howl had come from. Soon it became clear that his destination was the docks, and not just any docks, but the game corporation docks. Wonderful, not only did he have to deal with the Council, but also whatever security measures Sega, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft had to offer. What had he said earlier about being ready for anything?  
Tanetris slowed as he came closer, seeing quite a commotion. Uniformed guards from each of the four companies, at least a dozen corporate spies, and countless heavily armed private citizens watched everything while yet more uniformed guards surrounded a man with a bloody nose and a nearby cat with equally bloody paws. The fellow werewolf he had heard, perhaps, but without being close enough to pick up a scent, it remained a guess.  
Something struck him as odd about the cat though. Carefully watching her movements, Tanetris wasn't sure if she was a werecat, some magical girl's familiar, a human trapped in a cat's body by some magical process, a normal cat given super-intelligence by scientific or magical means, or what, but he was quite certain she was sentient. Of course, he would know if he was close enough to get a scent, but at this range it was difficult to pick any particular scent out of the mix.  
Moving into the shadows, Tanetris moved slowly closer, idly tossing other people doing the same thing into nearby dumpsters. Honestly, people in MegaTokyo have too much time on their hands. At least the guards and corporate spies were getting paid for their efforts, he often wondered how these people could afford so much artillery and ammunition when they never seemed to have any sort of employment. Hearing a short, muffled scream across the street, Tanetris fell out of his reverie and looked over. Wonderful, someone was doing the exact same thing he was. Whoever it was was fast and adept at stealth, all he could make out was a brown tail-tip and... Another tail-tip? A kitsune, most likely, possibly even the same one who had distracted him earlier. Of course, a kitsune meant mischief, as if there weren't enough complications to this mess already. Tanetris hastened his pace.  


*******

It appeared that he hadn't needed Alek's help. The building was nothing but smoldering scrap, what of it had already hit the ground. The rest was raining over the better part of a mile.  
And now the agent was strolling down the street, cool as ice, smooth as glass. Only a MihoCultist could be that stylish. At least Alek knew he had the right guy.  
His perch on the rooftop allowed him to track his movement for several blocks, so Alek didn't have to worry about tailing him just yet. Alek called up his information on his retinal HUD, no real name, no vitals, no service record, not even a surveillance log. Either somebody way up the food chain didn't want Alek knowing anything about him, or they really didn't have anything on him. Based on the intel reports Alek had read, he was betting on the former.  
Alek loosed the display and tapped silently on the wristcomp communications menu. A quick scan of the latest mission update confirmed his suspicion about why he had suddenly found himself pulled from his post in Anaheim and dumped here. Wherever "here" was.  
He closed the display and looked back at his mark. Or at least where he should have been. Alek scanned the street again. No, he was gone. He shouldn't have been able to move like that. Retinal implants over to IR vision, still nothing. Motion detection, nothing.  
*click* _Crap._  
Alek froze, hanging over the edge of the building like a gargoyle, the ice cold muzzle of a very large handgun pressed into the back of his neck.  
The voice on the other end of it was as cold as the gun.  
"Who are you and why are you following me?"  
_How did he get up here?_ Alek should have seen or heard him coming long way off. He's a human, there's no way he should have been able to sneak up on him. And where did he get that gun? Alek's last scans showed only a small knife and the 'wombicon...  
The sound of the gun's hammer locking back reminded him that now was not a good time for a self-evaluation.  
"Don't shoot me BGMaster, I'm on your side"  
"Haven't answered my questions."  
Alek slowly, very slowly, reached into his pocket and retrieved his wallet and handed it to him, speaking slowly and deliberately as he did so.  
"My name is Alek, I'm a Mihoist operative assigned by the rave council to find you and keep you alive. My certification is in the wallet. I'd tell you more, but that's all I know."  
A few seconds of tense silence and the gun lifted from my neck. Alek stood without making any sudden motions, forgive him if he was still a little nervous, having a .45 put to one's head has that effect. He'd been on the opposite end of it often enough to know that.  
Alek's wallet landed at his feet with a thump that seemed to echo for an eternity on the rooftop.  
Alek knew what he was seeing. Some guy in a black trench with purple hair and glowing yellow eyes. That's right, the retinal implants were still active. Alek blinked and switched them off. Not that it helped things much. Ice blue eyes covered in silver circuitry.  
Alek's left arm suddenly felt cold. The same way it always did whenever someone was looking him over and realized it was cybernetic. Between that, the eyes, the wristcomp he was wearing and all the equipment he had -and the look on his face, Alek knew what he was thinking.  
"No, I'm not an EDS."  
He looked skeptical, but not totally so. Alek took that as a good thing. He said nothing, so he kept going, testing my limits.  
"Now BG, since I don't, would you happen to know why I've been assigned to you by the top brass?"  


*******

She couldn't handle this anymore, the guy sat next to her was been way too nice, guys aren't meant to be that nice, it's against all laws of reason.  
Glancing around the train she noticed that it was nearing the next stop. She sighed with relief.  
"Oh, it looks like this is my stop."  
"Really? I mean.. er... okay."  
_Hah Hah!_ she thought to herself, _I caught him off guard._  
She stood up, grabbing her book bag as the train came to a stop.  
"I'll see you soon Yasha-chan..."  
She was nearly out of the station when she realized she hadn't told him her name...  
She looked around, She was at the docks and a crowd was gathering.  
She caught a glimpse of what looked like a fox's tail out of the corner of her eye as she headed for the crowd, curiosity and the mob mentality over taking her.  
Some guy had gotten mauled by a cat, blood everywhere, the poor kitty stressed out by the crowd was hissing and spiting.  
She laughed to herself.  
"He probably had it coming, he is a bloke after all." she smiled inwardly and praised the cat for this blow to the stupidity of the whole of the male kind in general.  
Wait until Miho and Ping-chan heard about this, they wouldn't beleave what an odd, -not to mention creepy- day she'd had...  


*******

After lying on the spot for about 5 minutes, there was already a large commotion. The spot of course being the crossroads in front of the cargo ship that had arrived and was in serious need of unloading, were it not for Spacy blocking the whole.  
_Heh, I knew this spot would be perfect to cause some trouble ^_^. Plus, it gives me some time for a little bit of shuteye._  
Suddenly, all was not feeling right. The atmosphere changed, as if someone was ready to explode. Plus, a familiar scent too.  
_Hmm, better to open my eyes again, this ain't right. Huh, just a cat... Hold it, this ain't just a cat, the scent is off. Let's see jet-black, glowing eyes..._  
This of course took a while to sink in, Spacy not being the fastest person to get stuff while relaxing.   
_Holy hell, it's the pretty cat-girl from before... and I think her temper just exploded... and I'm in her way... and she's readying her claws... This is going to hurt. X_X_  
Several very painful seconds later, Spacy was upright, gripping his nose that had been slashed at 5 times with blood pouring out. Of course this was accompanied by a scream of totally his own kind and drawing lots of crowd by that.  
Spacy's gaining back some sense through the pain and after the screaming... screaming helps.  
_Oookay, this ain't good. First of all, I got slashed at by a pretty cat-girl, which is a downer on my day all the same. Second, the slashes were deep. Oh they'll regenerate, but somehow the slashes ain't of the normal type. So the girl ain't a werecat and I must learn to pay more attention when sniffing. Third, one of the uptight cubs must have alerted the tactical unit, because those ain't standardized guns... GUNS?!?!_  
Tactical hand cannons more like it, as Spacy is looking more closely.  
_This ain't normal, even for a fight. The shipment must be very precious. Damn, no way to fight my way out of here without getting innocents hurt... I just hope I can get my tail out of here._  
Suddenly Spacy heard a whimper and a hiss...  
_Great, the cat-girl. Pretty sure this ain't going to be pretty too for her. Better take her along too._  
Grabbing the girl by her neck-fur, Spacy starts for a dash... Seeing no way out cause of being surrounded, only way out would be up. Making a quick jump for it, he landed on one of the containers, dodging bullets now. Suddenly a flash of kitsune tail tries to escape the corner of his eye. Too late.  
_Damn, a kitsune. That explains alot. My partner is not going to take this well, she hates them._  
"Crap, I'm going to get it," were his first words aloud in this episode...  
"Ain't you the perceptive one... NOW LET GO OF ME YOU FREAK!"  
"Ouch! Hey, cool it, I still need that arm. Plus I'm trying to help. Whatever is happening, someone is not minding you getting hurt in the progress."  
"I DON'T CARE! Last thing I need is some stinking werewolf trying to rescue me."  
_Jeez, this girl really is pissed at me... there go my chances later._  
"That doesn't matter, I'm getting us out of here. You can do what you want later. And try not to smell too bad, I don't need other wolves tracking us too easily."  
"I'M SMELLING BAD!? YOU'RE LUCKY I'M TOO OUT OF BREATH TO TRANSFORM OR YOU'D BE GETTING IT!"  
Thinking small talk would be over now, Spacy leaped once again and once more, progressing quite nicely n... Holy hell, look out for the silver! Just barely dodging something very silver with fangs and claws (which wasn't attacking Spacy, mind you), Spacy manages to escape the crowd and the mess. Seems like another wolf was doing some leaping of his own, though this one is a bit more rare.  
Finally getting home, beating his usual running time, Spacy entered his own little sanctuary again. Looking at the cat in his hand, he saw she was very busy being unconscious while having all four claws in his arm. That would be hurting a lot when he minded it attention.  
_Jeez, this ain't good. Thankfully I'm sure no one was following me. Having a spell reducing my smell to near nothing and the detection spells around his home were handy indeed. Having the ballistic one for his partner did have its perks. Okay, now I'm tired._  
Getting the girl of him and putting her in the bed, Spacy went off and lay on the couch. Ten seconds later, he was snoring rather loudly in a peaceful sleep.  
  



	8. DWC is LongWinded

**Chapter 6- DWC is Long-Winded**  
  
  
AC, Na-chan, and T-ko stare at the running werewolf who'd just crashed into them.  
"Did you see that sword?!" AC exclaimed.  
"And you call ME hentai!" Na-chan retorted, her headphones having been knocked off in the collision.  
"What? I didn't mean it like that! I was talking about the katana that guy was carrying. I'd love to have a weapon like that."  
Both Na-chan and T-ko sighed, knowing AC's fondness of bladed weapons.  
"Hey, think we should follow him?" T-ko asked. "It's not like we have anything better to do."  
"I don't think so. You know as well as I do how chaotic things are around here..."  
"True."  
The girls continued walking, though whether or not it was in the same direction as they were before is uncertain, as they had gotten mixed up because of the collision.  


*******

Sometime later they decided to find something to eat.  
"Wait," AC said as they stopped outside a restaurant, "do you think they'll take American currency? We never got a chance to exchange it for Japanese yen..."  
T-ko and Na-chan shrugged.  
"Then can you think of any place we could exchange it then?"  
Again, they shrugged.  
"No idea."  
"Great. This is a problem."  
Hey," Na-chan said, "maybe if we're lucky someone will stop and help us out."  
"Yeah right, what're the chances of _that_ happening?"  


*******

Karu put on her best fox-grin. This was shaping up to be an interesting day. Get up, grab some breakfast in the local park, and then follow her nose into the most mischief available within a 20-mile radius. In this case, this boat. Her tails swished in unison, a large fluffy mass.  
First that wolf was looking at her as she made her way down here, then he crashed into those 3 girls. Because he, the werewolf, was heading her direction, she followed him, sneaking for the sheer fun of it. Then he spotted Karu. She smirked and scampered away, coming to the docks where the large cargo ship was. The gunfire started, and she dashed behind a set of crates, watching the new arrival, and the pissed black neko in his arms.  


*******

Cola reached the end of the train, but hadn't found the girl who had his diary. Perhaps she had escaped him at an earlier stop.  
He bought some candy and got off the train to retrace his steps. He also bought a disposable camera, seeing the sky darkening with rain. While walking back, it began to fall, and he hid behind a billboard and waited.  
People ran past, covering their heads with newspapers. Umbrellas appeared amid the crowd. Soon it became a typical-looking urban street scene.  
Except...  
In the distance, Cola thought he saw a man running by holding a cat. As he stood up to see more clearly, a gray dog ran between his legs and disappeared behind him. There seemed, although it was of course purely subjective, to be fewer people and more animals on the streets.  
And so Cola's suspicions concerning the Jusenkyo spring at the heart of Tokyo were fueled, though never confirmed: he had never _seen_ random pedestrians changing into livestock, although if it ever happened he meant to take a picture.  
After watching for a while, he threw the camera in a trash-bin and walked home to his small apartment, feeling slightly let-down.  


*******

After noticing this guy couldn't understand what he said because of the cat scratching at his face. Gorion decided to let them get on with what they were doing and get on with his duties. Then all hell broke loose and he had to run for cover. Then he saw a kitsune and he was not surprised because he knew that they loved mischief and he also noticed a silver werewolf and decided to follow him.  


*******

DietWaterCzar had been let out of the hospital just a few hours prior. He's not exactly sure how things had played out after he blacked out, but he didn't care. Kimiko-sama was safe and sound. Apparently, VorpalBlade had made a clone of her that that was who he had seen get killed. Who'da thunk huh? He didn't know what had happened to VorpalBlade either, but he decided he shouldn't pursue any more information about him. He still had the overwhelming desire to hurt him and he thinks he needed a long period of adjustment first. The adjustment was getting used to not killing anymore. He knew it was wrong and he knew why, but old habits die slowly. He better not get himself into to many dangerous situations.  
Many things were going on in MegaTokyo these days. DietWaterCzar had heard that Quinn was doing more official Sony business though he didn't know where he had been during the Sega Building battle. Last he had heard of Tragic Bill and BGMaster, they had some Miho-cultist things going on. He didn't really know what they were doing; he wasn't big into the rave scene. He had no idea what Kaiser, Moore, or Wizard of Kitty, were doing, but he assumed that whatever WoK was doing, Skittles would be involved. Queslin was still in the hospital getting treated for her wounds, but she was managing to cause a good amount of chaos. Running around the halls leaving ammo, looking for camping spots, and confusing the Ayanamis with unending levels of l337 speak. DietWaterCzar still didn't know hat she thought of him, but he decided to avoid the issue for the time being. Garran had been brought back to earth and he and Phaedrus were doing poetry readings at Anna Millers.  
DietWaterCzar supposed that was where they were going when they turned the corner to find his Enforcer in Garran's face.  
"Oh hey guys! What's up?" DietWaterCzar ask the two poets.  
"Umm, nothing except that you have that gun in Garran's face. I thought you weren't killing anymore." Phaedrus addressed him.  
"Oh don't worry, it's not loaded!" DietWaterCzar assure him as he lowers the gun. "See?" he pulls the trigger while pointing the barrel into the air and fire a round. "Oops.... Oh well."  
He suddenly hears small flash and a voice next to his right ear says, "You know you COULD just not carry a gun around. It'll work wonders in preventing accidental shootings."  
"But if I don't have my gun what will I use to point at people in a menacing manner?" he tells the tiny conscience on his shoulder.  
"Oi…. I really wonder what I did to get you as my client. Fine, if you MUST have a gun have this." Tomoe tells DietWaterCzar as she causes a gun to materialize in his hand. "It's a Beretta converted to fire tranquilizer rounds. This way, even if you do hit someone you won't kill them."  
"Cool! I can't wait to try it out!"  
"Uhhhh.... I'd rather you not. Also I still want you to stop pointing guns at people, this is just temporary okay?"  
"Yeah.... Sure, I guess so.... Not pointing guns at people.... What a strange concept."  
"I have a long job ahead of me...." Tomoe mutters to herself before disappearing again.  
"Well that certainly was strange.... Anyway Czar, where are you headed?" Phaedrus asks as he brings himself back into a conversation.  
"Oh, I heard that Hatcheter found out where the old Army was, I going there to see how they're doing. What about you?" DietWaterCzar replies to the poet.  
"Oh, we're going to Anna Miller's for our poetry readings."  
"Makes, sense. Hey have you seen Queslin yet? I still think she has a bit of a thing for you."  
"Ummm.... Oh look at the time! We must be going now! See you later!" Phaedrus tells DietWaterCzar as he hurries off.  
About an hour later DietWaterCzar finds himself in front of a condemned warehouse. This was where Hatcheter had found the others; he supposes he should just go in. He opened the doors and peered inside expecting to see a triage unit, when he got something very different.  
His old subordinates of the Kimiko Army had set up a rather large arcade. It was a rather impressive operation. A massive cacophony of sound and light blasted him in the face. Hundreds of coin-op consoles filled the floor, Mosh Mosh Revolution machines had incredibly long lines and the ticket claim prize wall was a big as a house. DietWaterCzar made his way though the crowds, getting a few shocked looks and salutes as he passed by. He finally found Hatcheter playing Skeeball with his hockey stick.  
"Hey Hatcheter! What the hell is going on?" DietWaterCzar ask my former subordinate.  
"Huh? What do you mean?" Hatcheter asks him with his mind still on his game.  
"I MEAN this huge ass arcade! I was under the impression the Army had been in a huge battle and went her to regroup!"  
"Oh. Well they did, Echo and his forces hit them hard, but you know these guys, it takes more than another army to take them down! They managed to get out of the battle and take refuge here. They were going to go back out to fight again, but they didn't know where to go. They didn't have the info we had. They just sat tight and waited for any news to come to them. After the battle ended, I found them and told them Kimiko was safe and they all decided to relax and build themselves a recreation area."  
"Where did they get the money for this?"  
"Uhhh, they sold the weapons...."  
"The WEAPONS! MY WEAPONS?!?"  
"Uhhh.... Yeah I kinda forgot to tell them you were alive…."  
"Great, well I better address them..." DietWaterCzar mutters as he climbs a nearby coin-op and looks across the arcade. "ALRIGHT! LISTEN UP MAGGOTS!!! IF YOU CAN'T TELL I AM ALIVE!!!!"  
The entire arcade suddenly grew quiet as his old Army looked up to see the leader they thought was dead yelling at them.  
"Okay guys, I don't appreciate you selling my weapons too much but I'm putting those days behind me. These arcade machines seems to making you guys happy so you can keep them." DietWaterCzar addresses the crowd.  
"Uhhh.... Are you sure you're DietWaterCzar?" a voice in the crowd asks.  
"YES. Also in a purely symbolic gesture, I hereby announce the Kimiko Army disbanded. You are all free to do whatever you want."  
"Whoo! I'm gonna join the Anna Miller's fanboys!" someone yells.  
"Yeah! Think I'll go Yuki drooling! I don't care if she's jailbait!" someone else yells.  
"I'm gonna see what all that raving and stuff Miho is into is about!" yells another.  
"Don't yell that stuff in front of me." DietWaterCzar tells the crowd as he fires three tranquilizers.  
A little while later he heads into Anna Miller's passing by a were-animal fight on the way. _Bleh, more transformations and glowing sword… _ When he gets to Anna Millers he finds that Kimiko-sama has already gotten off work and Garran and Phaedrus had gone. He was still hungry though and he decided to order some spaghetti.  
As he ate his meal he overheard a conversation in the booth behind him.  
"I know that she has gone through an ordeal but that doesn't give her and excuse to look like that when at work." an Anna Miller's fanboy tells his companions.  
"Yes, did you see her hair? It was not arranged in a pleasing enough manner and I believe that I even saw bags under her eyes. That is not appropriate!" another adds.  
"Miss Kimiko Nanasawa needs to be reprimanded for her sub-par presentation by a small cut in her pay. It's only prudent!" states yet another.  
"AHEM! So you boys don't like Kimiko-sama's appearance?" DietWaterCzar says as he pulls his Beretta and draws his katana.  


*******

After he finished his meal DietWaterCzar walks past the window he had thrown the now unconscious fanboys through when he meet Ootika-san.  
"You know, as much as I appreciate all you've done. I think I need to ask you to leave for a while. Hey, it's not like I don't like it when you turn this place into a bunker, wage a war from here, get this place transported to the top of a skyscraper, and start throwing customers out the windows, but I think this place needs a break from you." the manager asks of him.  
"Ok I guess, how long? A week or two?"  
"I'm thinking more like a year. PLEASE! I'll do anything!" Ootika pleads with DietWaterCzar.  
"ANYTHING?"  


*******

Inside a small apartment in MegaTokyo, Kimiko Nanasawa and Erika Hayasaka sit in front of a television set. Nothing else is on so they are watching the news.  
"In recent news, Sony has given a statement refuting the existence of a large number of robots. They have also stated that a representative from America will be coming soon to answer any questions about the future of PS2 accessories.  
"Meanwhile, there have been several reports of large furry creatures battling in the streets with the appearance of many glowing weapons. Current reports state that the creatures are the spawn of MegaGamers employee Erika Hayasaka. Scientists theorize that she may be alien cyborg from another dimension. More on this story as it develops," a TV anchor reports.  
"Stupid news, can't they get anything right? Next they're going to say that you are the Queen of Atlantis." Erika says to Kimiko.  
"This just in! Yuki Sonada is reported to be a princess from the moon! More on this as it develops," The TV anchor adds.  
"Well you were kinda close.... The news does se-" Kimiko tries to say when she is interrupted by the doorbell.  
Kimiko goes to answer the door when she finds DietWaterCzar kneeling in front of her.  
"Hello Kimiko-sama. How are you this evening?" DietWaterCzar asks.  
"I'm ok I guess.... What are you here about Diet-kun?" Kimiko wonders.  
"I'm here to ask you to come with me on a vacation."  
"Ummmm, a vacation?"  
"Yes, you deserve one after what you went through. Also it's getting more dangerous around here with all the were-creatures and such. I managed to get us a reservation at a resort pleasure island."  
"A resort… pleasure…island? Uhhhh, are you.... Ummm.... Uhhhh...." Kimiko stuttered with a shade of red growing on her face.  
"Oh, no no no! I would never presume such a thing! You are my Kimiko-sama. We are going there simply to relax! If you want, Erika can come as well, there is plenty of room on Cornelius."   
"Cornelius? The Rent-a-Zilla?"   
"Yes, he is taking us, I just have to tell him."  
"How did you afford this anyway? Diet-kun?"  
"Well I am loaded. I could afford to create and run and entire army, but I'm not paying for this. I managed to get Ootika-san to pay for it. I even got him to give you a full months paid vacation!"  
"How did you do that?"  
"I don't know really, just being myself I guess."  
  



	9. Fighting and Mischief

**Chapter 7- Fighting and Mischief**  
  
  
BGMaster pulled out the Necrowombicon and flipped to a seemingly random page. Letters briefly glowed red for a second.  
"Alright, Alek. You check out in The Book. As for the top brass assigning you to keep me alive, I most certainly do have a reason. I'm one of them."  
Seeing his surprised look, BGMaster smiled. "Yes, that's right. Executive Officer of Convertees and Special Operations. I delegate most of the Convertee office to subordinates. We have plenty of new disciples to keep them busy. The fact is, I'm the best operative in MegaTokyo. The council has a fair amount of backstabbing, which I have been involved in. I am extremely loyal to Miho-sama - and I support those council members who are too, not the ones simply wishing to gain more power. Somebody wants me out of the way - I'm too powerful. I have the ear of Miho herself. I have also been involved in enough of the fanwar stuff that's been going on that my reputation is pretty much untouchable. And people know not to mess with me in combat. Whoever betrayed me had to be pretty high up to be able to pull the drug placement they did. I've been dead once, and Miho herself brought me back, so they had to get me with something that knocked me out cold for a while but didn't kill me. Luckily, they made two mistakes. They allowed the others to find out where I'd been taken, and the people they got to take me were the Anti-Church of Miho - a very stupid bunch. The council members allied with me sent you to help me, so I'll assume you're both a loyal Cultist and rather skilled. And as you can see, I've escaped now. Whoever betrayed me is going to pay.  
"Enough with the background shit. I need to find out what they have out tracking me - they surely have somebody."  
Alek received the information BGMaster had dumped on him well. He barely gaped at all. "So, what's the plan then?"  
BGMaster smirked, then spoke a few words and gestured. He was outfitted in a black trenchcoat. He opened it to reveal an array of weaponry that would put Neo's lobby arsenal to shame. Now Alek did gape. "How did you do that?"  
BGMaster hefted the Necrowombicon. "With this, and special training from Miho herself, I can manipulate just about anything in an Anime based area. MegaTokyo is one. The abilities of creating things, speeding up or slowing down time, and other manipulations of the Laws of Anime are mine to control and use as I see fit. Plus, I have the added bonus of being immune to normal weaponry - though that ability belongs to me alone. Those abilities are what I used to sneak up on you. Anyway, the plan. I'm heading for the docks, and I'm doing it along as public a route as I can find. I'll certainly stand out in this outfit. I will locate and deal with those tracking me at close range - you deal with the ones further out. To take me on in combat and win, you need roughly a level of power with which to start the apocalypse, so I'm not worried. You look like you can handle yourself well, despite the fact that I snuck up on you. Your cybernetic implants will come in handy." BGMaster shrugged. "Before you ask, no, I don't really care where you came from. The MihoCult takes all kinds."  
"How am I to deal with them?"  
BGMaster handed him a sniper rifle. "You know how to use one of these, right?" He grinned.  
BGMaster turned to go, opting for a leap off the rooftops rather than the silent path he'd taken up. He did a very stylish three-point landing in the street, and straightened up. It was time to root out corruption in the Council of Miho. But they couldn't do it without style.  


*******

After quite a while, AC, Na-chan and T-ko finally managed to get something to eat and find a place to stay for the time being.  
That, and AC somehow managed to get a hold of a laptop.  
"Ah, feels good to have some Author Omnipotence again..."  
"What?" T-ko looked confused.  
"It's when the author does whatever they want because they're the author," Na-chan explained.  
AC cracked her knuckles. "This is gonna be fun."  
Now, not only does AC write both fanfiction and original work, but she also practices the art of using Author Omnipotence in such a way that it's all but undetectable. In other words, once she starts screwing with a story, no one realizes it until it's much too late.  
"Now, who should I mess up first?"  
Checking sources via the internet, she quickly noticed the commotion at the docks.  
"Perfect..."  
She rapidly typed an extension of the story, skillfully manipulating the existing elements into something completely different. She finished and hit "enter", then sat back to wait for the inevitable explosion....  


*******

Tanetris saw the other werewolf finally noticing his predicament. When he scooped up the cat, it was obvious enough that the plan was escape, and Tanetris for one couldn't blame the guy. Taking a quick appraisal of the weak point of the guards surrounding the werewolf and cat, Tanetris stepped just far enough out into the street that he would bump against the guy as he went past. When he did so, Tanetris managed the grab a few blood-spattered loose hairs from the cat. _Perfect, I'll be able to track them as soon as I deal with this,_ he thought to himself.  
Tanetris looked up at the horde rushing towards him with blood in its eyes. The officer had said self-defense was perfectly acceptable, and certainly this counted. Snapping a quick polaroid for evidence later, Tanetris pulled out his sword and charged. A lightning-fast blur, Tanetris quickly cut throw the first line of guards, all of his blows directed to be disabling rather than deadly. Unfortunately, there was something he hadn't counted on. As the sword sliced into one guard's arm, the guard howled in pain and fell to the ground, spasmed there briefly, and became still, then slowly reverted to a furrier form.  
_Oh damn,_ Tanetris thought, _Of course there had to be werewolf guards, and of course I cut them with a silver-edged sword. Thank god it was a scratch, or he'd be dead instead of unconscious, then I'd be dead..._  
The entire band of guards fell back, 20 of them looking a lot more worried than the rest. Those must be the other werewolves, more than he cared to take on, but few enough that they wouldn't want to take on another werewolf with a silver sword either, and the human guards seemed to be deferring to the werewolves' judgment.  
Glancing to his right, Tanetris saw that same six-tail grinning at him. He knew she could easily intervene with her magic to help him, but she was a kitsune, the only way she would do so would be if she thought he could provide more entertainment unharmed. On the other side of the building from her, a rather heavily armed gaijin he had taken earlier to be among the corporate spies. Whether that assessment was accurate or not, he seemed to be neutral in this encounter.  
_If I attack, I run the risk of killing one of those werewolves and having at least 100 more after me by the end of the day. If I retreat, I turn my back on 20 werewolves probably just as fast as me, and those humans might have silver bullets,_ he considered.  
Well, it couldn't be helped. Focusing briefly, Tanetris shifted form into full-wolf for better speed. The guards didn't attack yet, and the other werewolves didn't shift form, both good signs. They were probably waiting for him to turn his back to shoot him with silver bullets. Instead, Tanetris ran straight for them at full-speed, shocking the humans into momentary inactivity (you'd take a minute too if a wolf bigger than you ran full-speed toward you), and drawing curses from the werewolves still on their feet. Tanetris leaped over the whole group and took off running down a side street as the other werewolves shifted form to pursue. Too late for them, a few seconds head start was all he needed. Weaving through side streets and alleys, Tanetris charged into the nearest train station, showed his rail pass, and leaped into a train just as it was departing. Of course, he had been followed, but he had lost the werewolves. All he had to worry about was the gaijin in the car ahead of him, and the kitsune in the car behind. _Yes,_ he thought, _**all** I have to worry about is a heavily armed man who can keep up with a running werewolf, and a six-tailed kitsune. How do you get yourself into these messes, baka?_  


*******

Looking down the train at the werewolf and kitsune. Gorion tries to bring up a file on them in his sunglasses.  
"Dam that werewolves fast I had to teleport twice just to keep up." He slowly opens up the door and cautiously starts walking towards the werewolf.  
"Hi I am inspector Gorion. I saw you back there at that weird scene and I thought you and the kitsune might have something to do with it. Or am I completely off? By the way nice sword."  


*******

Wizard of Kitty was happily skipping through the streets with a small bag of skittles in her pocket from BG Master. Apparently, she still hadn't finished them all yet. She was on a break with using her wizardy powers and now just enjoying the day in her j00 d34d f00 t-shirt and black pants.   
As she looked on, she saw BGMaster. She ran up to him, who knows if it had style.   
"Hilo BGMaster! How are you?"  


*******

"Crap," AC said, "I missed."  
Instead of the desired effect of blowing up something on or near the ship with its precious cargo, she'd only managed to hit another one further out to sea.  
"Okay, this time I'm going to take my time, and find a better target..."  


*******

And what about Na-chan and T-ko? Well, T-ko had found some Gundam Wing videos, which she was currently watching and drooling over Duo. As for Na-chan, she was happily munching pocky and trying to put her favorite picture of Shinji on the ceiling in just the right place so that he'd be the last thing she saw when she went to bed, and the first thing when she got up in the morning.  
Anyway, enough weirdness, let's see what AC's up to.  


*******

AC had succeeded in finding another target. Or to be exact, two targets. An interesting pair- a werewolf and a human on a train discussing something, and therefore rather unaware of potential author interference.  
"And to top it all off," she muttered to herself, "there's a kitsune present as well, so all I'll have to do is start some trouble and watch the fun begin..."  
After carefully reviewing the situation (she wasn't going to mess up this time) she started typing.  
"Let's see here..."  
A few tweaks, and aha! She finished editing her work, carefully looked it over, and pressed "enter".  


*******

On the train, a passenger carrying a load of baked goods suddenly tripped on a beer can someone had carelessly left there. One particularly whipped-cream filled pie went flying and hit the werewolf in the face, while the human got a cake in the head. The remaining foodstuffs scattered in a mess all over the floor, but with a hidden message written out for anyone clever enough to see it:  
_"Mwahaha! I'm just getting warmed up! Signed AC, the master of Author Omnipotence!"_  
  



	10. A Few Encounters

**Chapter 8- A Few Encounters**  
  
  
Neko rubbed her velvety black head against the rough wool blanket. She had been taking a very luxurious catnap. She hadn't slept for three days, there just was too much too do. Since changing departments she had to make sure all her stuff was moved into the right office, magical abilities was being transferred properly into a new account (they had only managed to transfer 20%...they screwed up anyway even though she had been watching over them), and basically learning about the job. It seemed that every day a cat girl bounded in front of a train, or was dangerously close to sending a poor guy to jail for being a pedophile. Being a neko was easy enough. She had most of their traits already.  
Wait a moment…a gray wool blanket? Through half lidded eyes Neko surveyed the room as best she could. Figures, she couldn't be in nice, pink, soft girl's room with a goose stuffed blanket. This room was bare though, except for some simple furniture. It was probably the wolf's room.  
Changing back into her human form, she opened the nearby closet.  
_Let's see here. T-shirt...t-shirt...socks...underwear...won't get into that...a bra @_@. I think I'll just close the closet door now, and not even grab what I was looking for._  
It bothered her a little some of the stuff the wolf had in his closets. But then it was his own business.  
_If it's his own business then why did you go into his closet? Because I wanted another blanket. You shouldn't snoop. Don't tell me what to do. Shut up! Also, stop talking to yourself then :P_  
Neko was glad nobody was in the room. Often out of habit she talked to herself. She had a sneaking suspicion that everybody would think she was crazy. Of course they could only do that if they even got close to her.  
_That's because you don't LET them get close. Didn't I tell you to stop talking to yourself? That's your problem. You always are so cranky and annoyed at the world, why don't you be nice for once? Because I don't know how, and they don't understand._  
The loud snoring of a certain wolf's interrupted her thoughts. And was that the sound of slobbering also? She wrinkled her nose in distaste. Thank god she didn't snore.  
Following the loud gargling sounds she found the source of the snores. In the wolf's sleep he had changed back into human form.  
She stared at the guy lying on the couch sprawled.  
_At least he doesn't smell as badly as before.  
I wonder if they have any tea in this house. And maybe...just MAYBE after a cup of tea I will tell him about what's going on with the Department of Werewolves. I need as much help as I can get. Even if he is one of their species._  


*******

Tanetris looked dubiously at the man who had introduced himself as Gorion. Transforming into half-wolf form to be understandable, he spoke warily, "My name's Tanetris. I don't know what was happening back at the docks, and I don't know the kitsune, but I saw her arrive on the scene after me, so I don't think she had anything to do it, though she certainly seemed to revel in it. And thank you, it was a gift."  
Gorion nodded thoughtfully, "Why did you seem so intent on defending the man with the cat then?"  
"He reminded me of someone I knew, a relative."  
"So that's also why you took the blood-spattered hairs off the cat for a tracking spell? To tell him he reminded you of someone?"  
_Dammit, this guy doesn't miss much,_ Tanetris thought. _I just wish I knew his agenda in all this..._  
"What's your agenda, and what's it have to do with me?" he blurted out, for lack of a better response.  
Gorion chuckled, "An honest question, I'll give you an honest answer. I'm from the US Supernatural Division, I've been sent to MegaTokyo to look into some strange occurrences and stem a few growing problems. Whether or not that has anything to do with you, we'll find out, won't we?"  
Just as Tanetris opened his mouth to respond, a passenger carrying a load of baked goods suddenly tripped on a beer can someone had carelessly left there. One particular whipped-cream filled pie went flying and hit ther werewolf in the face, while Gorion got a cake in the head. The human slipped, hit his head on a pole, and went down like a sack of bricks.  
Tanetris was uncertain if this was kitsune mischief-making, random good luck, or something else entirely, but he decided to take the advantage. He ripped open the ceiling of the train-car with his claws and climbed onto the roof. He leaped from the train onto the tracks and climbed up a service hatch onto the street.  
Once on street-level Tanetris spared a thought for the poor human in the train, probably still unconscious, _I hope he's okay. Of course, with the luck I've been having, I'm sure I'll see him again soon enough, and he'll probably blame me for his headache._  
Looking around and taking in his surroundings, Tanetris realized he was outside Ann Miller's again. Now how the heck did that happen? Shrugging it off, Tanetris thought back on the run in with the three girls before this whole mess started and decided he should check on them before he forgot completely. He shifted to full-wolf form again and went back to where he remembered running into them. Yes, there were their scents. They went this way. For a half-hour he followed the scent-trail which doubled back on itself and went in circles at least 2 dozen times. The wolf idly hoped it wasn't a sign of concussion. Finally he found where they were staying, a hotel which was coincidentally enough just across the street from his own home.  
Tanetris paused. Should he go in half-wolf form which they would recognize, or human form so the gaijin girls wouldn't be frightened? After several minutes inward debate, he went into half-wolf form and knocked on the door. He heard shouting from within.  
"Was that the door?"  
"Yeah, I think someone's knocking."  
"Who would knock on our door? No one even knows we're here."  
"How should I know?"  
"Try answering it!"  
"Would you both shut up and someone answer the door! I'm trying to watch Gundam!"  
Finally the door opened, and the oldest of the three girls stood before him. Peering around her was a somewhat short redhead with pocky hanging out of her mouth. The third was not in sight, but the unmistakable sounds of Gundam Wing could be heard in the next room.  
Clearing his throat, Tanetris spoke, "Hello again. I bumped into you earlier, remember? May I come in?"  


*******

AC paused for a moment, then noticed the sword the werewolf was carrying.   
"Oh yeah, I remember. Sure, come on in."  
As he walked by she noticed some remains of whipped cream still clinging to his fur. She was puzzled for a brief moment, then realized that it was also the same guy she'd just pulled that prank on. Or one of them at least. She hadn't bothered to follow what'd happened beyond the initial incident, as she'd had to stop Na-chan from completely turning the room into a Shinji/pocky shrine.  
The werewolf, however, seemed not to suspect a thing, and merely took AC's hesitation as shyness or something like that.  
"Sorry I didn't introduce myself before," he said. "My name's Tanetris."  
"Um, I'm AC, and this is Na-chan, and the girl over there watching Gundam is T-ko." Na-chan grinned rather foolishly (probably had too much sugar and Shinji...) and T-ko waved without taking her eyes away from the tv screen.  
There was a brief silence, then AC continued.  
"Uh, how did you find us here? It was hours ago that we ran into you..."  
Tanetris hesitated a moment to think of a good reply, but AC spoke first.  
"Oh, of course! You're a werewolf, so you have a wolf's sense of smell, right?"  
Tanetris nodded. "I followed your scent from where we met earlier. Were you guys lost or something? Because you certainly seemed to be wandering in circles quite a bit."  
"Well, you see, we were going to go visit a friend of mine in Tokyo, but Na-chan messed up and we ended up coming here to MegaTokyo instead." She glanced around, and finally spotted the redhead busily paging through an Evangelion manga and kissing every picture of Shinji she came across. "So we're stuck here for the time being, though we don't really mind that much." Again she glanced at Na-chan, who was still drooling over the Eva manga, and at T-ko who was practically glued to the tv set (there was currently a scene involving Duo on it).  
Tanetris followed AC's gaze, and decided it was probably best not to comment on anything. True, weird stuff happens in MegaTokyo, but the way Na-chan was staring at the images in that manga was just _wrong_.  
"Well, my house is just across the street from here, if you ever need any help or advice or anything..." he trailed off, a little unnerved by the whole situation.  
"Okay," AC replied. "I figured that T-ko, Na-chan and I should just take a day or two to think things over before we decide what we're going to do or anything. If we need help with anything, I'll be sure to ask."  
"All right." Tanetris got the distinct impression that the conversation was over, and took the opportunity to leave. While apparently AC was quite used to her friends' obsessions, he certainly wasn't, and while it retrospect it really wasn't that bad, the initial shock is something else.  
As AC watched him go, she wondered if maybe she should have told him about the little prank. But then again, it would've taken a very long time to explain, and well, she'd never been good at handling that kind of unexpected twist. Sure, she could write about them, but actually encountering them was something else.  
_Ah well,_ she thought, _I'll just be sure to avoid hitting him with my little "pranks". Besides, there's still that other guy from the train, maybe he'd be some to interfere with. Or the kistune. Playing games of tricks with tricksters is *always* fun..._  


*******

_Bravo,_ Karu thought to herself, grinning back at the other werewolf. _Well done._  
The silver wolfie shifted, and ran right past the rest of the dock guards. Karu, naturally followed-not that kitsunes needed rail passes-she leaped right through the turnstile, and into the car behind the wolf. _Hrm. This won't do. Need t'get into th'next car._ Karu backed up, then took off running at the door in front of her. Just before coming to the door, she leapt up, grabbed the rings hanging from the ceiling, and swung at the door, bashing the two of them open, and arriving just in time to get thoroughly covered in whipped cream splatterings. Whups, there goes the wolfie again! Before leaping out of the subway to follow him, the kitsune left a little something for the human, when he woke up.  
A fox plushie.  
With that, the six-tails bounded out of the hole so conveniently left by that wolf, continued following him. When he turned around after closing the apartment door, Karu was there, grinning as always.  
"Soooo....what's howlin' wolfie?"  
  



	11. Werewolf Meets Girl

**Chapter 9- Werewolf Meets Girl**  
  
  
Tanetris closed the door, still facing the building, lost in thought. There was something about that AC girl. He was quite certain that all was not as it appeared with her. He could hear her heartbeat quicken and see a slight blush in her cheeks when she looked closely at his face. Of course, if he went by shoujo manga's guidance, it would mean not only she, but also most likely one of her two friends had fallen in love with him, and he would invariably fall in love with the third, causing a hopeless love-polygon...  
_And that's why I only read shoujo manga in small doses,_ he thought.  
Tanetris shook the thought away. There was time enough for figuring it out later, there was still something he had left to do. Glancing up at the sky, the werewolf judged that there was still a good hour or two before sunset. That should give me plenty of time, he said to himself as he turned around, _barring any compli.... Oh shit._  
Tanetris froze, for standing on the steps to the building was the six-tailed kitsune, a foxy grin plastered across her face. If there was one thing a MegaTokian knew, it was that a kitsune taking a personal interest in you could turn out one of two ways: very very good, or very very bad, and the more tails the kitsune had, the worse the bad could be...  
"Soooo....what's howlin' wolfie?"  
The werewolf gulped silently, "Hi, I'm Tanetris.. And you are?"  
"Karu," the kitsune smiled with perfect harmless innocence.  
"It's nice to meet you, Karu. Been enjoying the show?"  
A short giggle escaped from Karu, "Oh, you're quite the entertaining one, Mr. Tanetris. From life-or-death battle to a high-speed chase, and even romance! Something for everyone! I think you may just be my new special project."  
Tanetris gulped a little louder this time. Karu slid closer to him, five of her tails wrapping around him as softly as a lovers' embrace, though it could quickly change to as deadly as a boa constrictor, and her sixth tail came up under his chin.  
"Now, now," she said silkily. "There's no need to be scared of lil' ol' me. You know what they say, a kitsune taking a personal interest in you can be very bad, or oh so very good. Don't you want it to be good, Tannie?"  
"Y-y-y-yes, of course..," he stuttered briefly. He hated the nickname Tannie, but decided this wasn't the time to bring it up.  
The grin spread back across the kitsune's face, her tails withdrew, and she did a backflip down the steps before saying, "Excellent! Now then, Tannie, where is this great adventure taking us next?"  
After a moment's hesitation, Tanetris regained some of his composure. After all, a six-tailed kitsune may be powerful, but so was a werewolf, particularly one who was blessed by and who carried a sword enfused with the spirit of Almighty Pirogoeth.  
"We're going to my house to pick up a few things, then we're going to find that other werewolf. You hungry?" he asked as he started off across the street. The grin never budged from her face.  


*******

*sniff* *sniff* _Smells good._ "Uuuhh..."  
There are definitely worse things than waking to the smell of fresh tea. But this was a little worse because of him still recovering from the several slashes the girl gave him.  
_Ite! That smarts. Hey, if there's tea, that would mean that the girl's awake. Yup, those are definitely the sounds of someone rummaging in the kitchen._  
"Good Morning!" Spacy said, waving an arm above the couch. The kitchen part was located behind it, so he couldn't see anything yet.  
"Good morning," came the girl's voice.  
_A very pretty voice, when she's not shouting and being pissed at me._  
"Is it okay to peek? The view of the TV ain't particularly interesting." Spacy said again.  
"As if I would be more interesting, but you can look. Want a cup of tea?" said the girl.   
_Hmm, that sounded a bit forced. Not really a social person it seems. Oh well, let's take a look at who prolly is going to bash my head in no time at all.  
Wow, even more stunning from up close. But there's something off._  
"You look a bit wasted, especially with my blood on you. You're welcome to use the shower to freshen up. Don't worry, it's clean. And there's probably some clothes that would fit you more than me in the drawers of my closet."  
"I've been through some of your closet already, I'm sorry for that. But I'm not sure I want to wear the stuff you're talking about. I ain't sure I want to know what happened with it. Here's your tea."   
That was cause for a sweatdrop on Spacy's face.   
_Heh, she already checked that. Clever girl. Must have noticed some of my partner's stuff too then. That must've made me look like a hentai. Oh well, don't want to get into that._  
"Eh, it's probably not what you think, but I ain't getting into that now. Don't worry about the clothes, you can use them safely. Thanks for the tea."  
"You're welcome. So, how come you're living by yourself. And I don't mean alone, but outside the community. This place is in the middle of nowhere, judging from the view."  
"Don't like the crowds. Cuts in on my relaxing time."  
"Is that why you're not even enlisted at the Board of Werewolves? You do know that not supposed to happen? I mean, last thing they want is a lone wolf."  
"Just didn't want to join them, less relaxing time. They were pestering me for a long time after that, but then they got scared."  
"Scared?..."  
"I'll keep that my business for now. Gomen."  
"That's okay. I'll go for that shower now. You'll probably need one too, since you're actually the source of the blood."   
And with that, she walked off, back into Spacy's room, since that's where the shower was attached too.   
_Hmm, that went pretty smoothly, apart from the last bit. She ain't very social, that much is certain. And I'm still not sure what she is. Definitely a supernatural cat of some sort, but not any of the ones that are noticeable.   
Oh, well. I don't think she's going to be sharing secrets this soon. Especially since I blew of that last answer. That should've made her suspicious. Heck, I still don't even know her name._  
With that conclusion, Spacy walked over to the kitchen and went to the mirror.   
(He had several hanging in his house, his partner tended to like them. And anything to calm her when she's visiting.)  
Well, looking back at Spacy through the mirror was a face of course. Blond hair just a little longer than short, blue eyes and what Spacy thought a fairly attractive face.   
(Just a little secret, he mostly didn't mind the mirrors too.)   
The slashes at his face were almost completely healed now, just leaving some minor scars. Those would be gone in a day's time. Hmmm, but the girl was right, his face and hair was still blood-covered and so were his clothes. Even his necklace endured some. He would have to clean up the crystals on that.   
After that Spacy walked back to his room. The shower was well running, so it would be safe, as long as he avoided going into the bathroom. But there was something odd.   
_Hmm, strange. What's that sound. It's faint, but I can definitely hear it over the shower's noise. Huh, talking? Ah, must be the girl talking to herself. Nothing to worry about, or worth confronting her with. She'll prolly just be embarrassed. Bet you it's a better way of thinking stuff over than having internal monologues like me. At least you can hear yourself thinking._  
Spacy realized he was going to have to deal with a lot of past and coming events now. He was dragged into this thing. His Lady still wanted him to check out what's happening. Spacy would see later if the girl knew anything about what's happening, but if she'd be unwilling to talk, then that would have to do. At least he was in her company.  
Walking back to the room, he sat on the couch and turned on the TV.   
"Now let's get back to our reporter that is live at the docks where yesterday a huge fight broke out. Witnesses state that the source of the commotion could be traced back to the Board of Werewolves..."   
_Just like any normal day in MegaTokyo. Boring._  


*******

After the door was shut, AC quickly grabbed all the remaining pocky and hid it where Na-chan wouldn't be able to find it. That way the sugar would eventually wear off and things would be at least relatively normal.   
She didn't return to the computer right away, though, instead she paused to think things over.   
_Okay,_ she thought, _we're pretty much stuck here. We have a place to stay for now, but we're probably going to run out of money soon. So, that means we'll probably have to go find some sort of job. No point in talking to Na-chan until she's off her sugar/Shinji high, same goes for T-ko and her Gundam wing. So that just leaves me for now... _  
She thought it over for a few minutes, then came up with an idea.   
_With all this fighting and competition going on, there's got to be _someone_ who'd pay for some Author Omnipotence tricks. All I need to do is make it known to the right people... _  
She got on the computer and started looking around for a good target.   
_Hey, there's that kitsune again. Looks like she's with a werewolf... Hey! That's Tanetris! _  
She didn't want to cause any more trouble for Tanetris, since he'd been so nice, but the kitsune could certainly provide some fun.   
"A challenge, then..." she said aloud to herself. After typing, editing, and retyping, she finally had a good plan. She proofread it for the umpteenth time, then hit "enter". _This had better not miss... _  
Outside, a sudden gust of wind knocked over a wooden sign, which crashed into a fruit stand, sending it rolling down the street. It picked up speed, heading straight for the kitsune.   
CRASH!   
The impact sent fruit flying in all directions. Across the street the scattered fruit and pieces of fruit created a clever message for anyone who cared to look:   
_"Plot manipulation by Author Omnipotence- see AC." _  
"Now that ought to get _someone's_ attention..".  


*******

Neko frowned to herself as the warm water dripped down and splashed onto the floor. He had avoided her last question. So he too was hiding something.   
"So then I'm not going to trust him just _yet_. He'll have to prove himself."   
"Also…remind myself to get him some cologne or something, anything. The smell is driving me crazy X_x"   
After a while she turned the showerhead off, and stepped out to grab a fluffy pink towel.   
"He is a strange one isn't he?"   
She glanced up to see a giant wall to wall mirror hanging in front of her.   
"Of course it figures. A werewolf that's after looks."   
Dark eyes, too big for her face stared back at her with their glowing intensity. Suddenly she was very annoyed at her own reflection.   
She changed back into her cat form, and with one swipe knocked the mirror onto the floor. The broken shards flew up in a shower of shattered rain. The lights reflected off of it, as tiny broken pieces of rainbow danced upon the white walls.   
Neko her dark hair dripping droplets of water on the floor stepped into the werewolf's closet. She grabbed a stripped green shirt, and a pair of black pants ignoring the other assorted knick-knacks in the closet.   
"This is way too big. I need a belt =_= the pants are going to fall down"   
Stalking out to the living room, back in her bad mood due to the mirror and the clothes she stood behind the couch fixing her eyes on the TV.   
"The police are now investigating more deeply of the fights mentioned before. The Board of Werewolves has agreed to cooperate even though their PR spokeswolf states 'The board has no comments right now.' And today's lucky numbers are…."   
She growled to herself. The board was going to kill her. It seemed that security and everything was much stricter now. She had already gotten de-promoted. Neko didn't want to think of what else they could do to her.   
It was only _if_ they found out she was the one behind it. Nobody would have really noticed that much. Unless this shipment had been really important the forms would have been lost in a sea of other forms. The shipment had been important though, and the forms weren't with her. They were in the folders on the dock…with the guards.   
The guy was watching the TV with a glazed look in his eyes, like he wasn't actually paying much attention to the content. It's not like she was going to have a choice now. She would have to tell him.   
She swung herself around, and plopped right next to him.   
"We have a slight problem…"   
(Hmmm…I hope the wolf will help me, and if he doesn't they I'm a dead cat. Oh well I thought today would be a lot more exciting.)  
  



	12. Tools of the Trade

**Chapter 10- Tools of the Trade**  
  
  
Karu vaulted off the stairs...and straight into the flying fruit. Naturally of course, the six-tail went flying herself. Standing up and licking a bit of pear mush off herself, she glanced at the ground.   
_"Plot manipulation by Author Omnipotence- see AC." _  
The kitsune's face revealed nothing, save a mischievous grin, and a laugh.  
"Aha aha ha ha ha! Author Omnipotence, eh? Who tricks the trickster, eh? We shall see..." Glancing up at the stunned werewolf, Karu called out, "Hungry? Nah, I'll be just fine with this," she replied, picking up a mango. "I take it that's yer house over there," Karu continued, nodding to the two-story house. "Tannie" nodded dumbly. With that, the kitsune dashed across the street on all fours, tails following behind and stopping traffic.   
Karu was all over the wolf's house, ducking under furniture, and (contrary to her earlier statement) poking her head into the fridge-grabbing herself a shredded beef taco.   
"So where's the weapons' gallery?" Inquired Karu, reclining on the sofa, daintily nibbling on her taco.   
"Ah, down that hallway, through the arched opening." came Tanetris' slightly dazed reply.   
The kitsune smiled sweetly. "Thanks." Then she quickly polished off the taco, licked her fingers, and scampered off in the direction that Tanetris had indicated.   
Karu blinked. Though she had no intention of letting the wolfie know it, he **did** have an impressive collection of weapons; and this kitsune could tell a fine piece of work when she saw it. In fact-Karu hopped closer to particular naginata-This weapon's kitsune make The six-tails flipped the naginata's blade over, and laid her hand over it. A spark of fire shot out of her outstretched paw, and surrounded the blade, then faded-leaving the smith's mark clearly visible-a flame, made out of nine foxtails. Karu stroked the weapon again, and it changed again, the blade retracting and the staff separating into a 3-sectioned nunchaku. This was what she danced back into the wolf's living room, twirling. "Nice collection of toys yeh got there." She commented, a twinkle in her eye.  


*******

After waking up from an impact with a cake and pole, Gorion then notices a fox plushie in his hand.  
"Hmm this fox must be from the kitsune. Now were did Tanetris go ah ha!"  
He then notices the hole in the train's roof and sum kitsune hairs.  
"He must have gone through the roof and that kitsune must have followed him. So if I use the fox as a tracer I can find the kitsune and maybe Tanetris."  
Then he stands up and disappears with a flash. Then he reappears in front of Tanetris and the kitsune.  
"Hi Tanetris nice to see you again," he says with a smile. "By the way one of those girls did that to us."  


*******

Glancing aside, Spacy looked at the girl that now was seated next to him. Ah, she managed to find some clothes. But definitely not the right kind. These were his and especially not flattering to her.   
_Oh well, I probably should have been more specific to where she could find the clothes. Plus, she picked those herself. And she's still as stunning as the first time I saw her._  
"A slight problem. Yup, but I guess I should have been more specific."   
This caused some confusion with the girl.   
"Nevermind... hey, I'm going to grab myself a shower as well. I really need to get these bloodstains off me and get cleaned up. We can talk after that." Spacy said as he got up from the couch and walked to the bathroom.  
"No wait... I need to talk about it now!" said the girl as she bolted up from the couch.  
"Sorry, but I really need to take a shower now. To get the blood off and all. There hasn't passed enough time since the last time I smelt like this. I don't like it."  
"What do you mean?" she asked, genuinely curious and worrying.  
"I'd rather keep that to myself, especially since it ain't a pretty story. Feel free to help yourself with whatever is in the kitchen and if you need some extra things, you're free to look around. My secrets ain't of the visible kind."   
_No answer, but she'll be fine. Now to get me some clean clothes._  
Spacy grabbed a clean set of clothes for himself and headed for the shower. There he got rid of his current bleeded on clothes and stepped in the shower. Then, he turned on the water...   
"ITE!!!"   
_That's hot... ah, that's better. She must like the water that way. Still, it's strange... she seemed scared to death a moment ago. As if her time was running out as well. Surely it can't be that bad for her? She's just an innocent bystander being very annoyed at someone and scratching someone face off. Me on the other hand have been caught deliberately obstructing the path and running from arrest (of course that ain't surprising, aiming cannons at someone tends to do that). But she... there can't be much to catch her on, right?_  
With that, Spacy finished his shower and stepped out. Once dried (with a normal, white towel. He won't touch the fluffy, pink ones) he looked at himself in the mirror (above his head).   
_Hmm, cleaned up nicely... now to get me a sniff-pearl._  
Spacy opened a drawer and grabbed something looking like a marble from a seemingly empty back. He then pushed the marble on his chest and it was quickly absorbed by his skin. Any perceptual beings with great smell that were paying attention would have noticed Spacy's smell diminishing to near zero. He was now very hard to sniff out and you'd have to stand close to him to smell him.   
_Works like a charm ^_^. Now to check up on my guest. Another cup of tea? Nothing wrong with that, but it's cold already. Wonder why she hasn't drank it... TV must have something interesting showing._  
The girl-cat (for lack of a better term) was now watching the news intently. Spacy sat next to her, not paying any attention to the TV and turned to her. She was a bit startled, especially since she couldn't smell Spacy come in.   
"So, what's on your mind?" Spacy began.  
"I screwed up big time. The Board of Werewolves is likely to have me executed on the spot for what happened at the docks yesterday."  
"That seems unfair, especially since you're not even part of the Board."   
_That coming from me? I'm prolly the target of the hunt. I was there from the beginning and was obviously pestering them on purpose._  
"No, you don't understand. I was supposed to make the things go smoothly there. Getting the forms signed out and making sure there were no problems. But I was especially to make sure that all the right stuff got to the right persons and now look what happened."   
She pointed to the TV which was showing the news. At that moment the newsreader conveniently began with the correct subject.   
[["The Board of Werewolves has just confirmed the theft of a relatively large portion of the ship's cargo. The theft took place during the commotion yesterday. This of course does not bode well for the Board of Werewolves and made them look like complete idiots. The Board has stated that they will do anything to apprehend and the thieves, this including the ones that starting the commotion."]]  
*TV off*   
"See what I mean... I was de-promoted and that's why I'm the Board's errand-runner now. But they're never going to forgive me for this. *sniff* I'm sure to be killed at the spot. It was all supposed to work out, this wasn't supposed to happen. *sob*." with that, the girl began to cry...   
_Ack, this I'm not used too. Especially not from her... All this must have grabbed her pretty heavily. Now what am I supposed to do. Milady, what kind of predicament did you get me in now?_  
But then he just reached and hold her, trying to comfort her.  
"Don't worry, you'll be fine. I'll be protecting you the whole time. I can't get you get killed after saving you, can I? You'll be perfectly safe."   
That seemed to comfort the girl somewhat. Then Spacy noticed a faint glowing on the other wall, a glowing of entirely a special kind.   
_Thanks Milady. At least I have your approval for protecting her..._  
With that though, as if his thoughts were heard, the glowing vanished. Spacy let the girl cry out for awhile longer till she stopped. She still didn't resist him holding her.   
_I hope that's not only out of politeness, but if I know her a little bit, she's going to be a little bit pissed at herself for allowing this emotional outbreak. Oh well, it's all the better that it happened._  


*******

A train pulled into its station and the passengers got off, one of them jumped off from the roof he carried a hold-all bag with a worn out back pack slung on his shoulder, a long (3 foot) monkey tail swung from side to side behind him, he adjusted the santa-hat (only temporary) on his head and walked onto the streets outside.  
He yawned and shook his head a few times.  
"Man I'm knackered, should be a hotel around here," Moore said. He took out a crumpled map. "Ah here we go, first left then a right"   
As he walked down the street he received very serious and disapproving looks from passers by.  
"I was hoping the people here would under-stand a little, after tonight I need to find some work."  
He arrived at a hotel and walked up to the reception area.  
"Hi Id like a room for tonight," Moore said.  
The receptionist replied "Certainly si-" She had caught sight of the tail now beating on the floor. "-uh I'm sorry sir, we donut have the facilities to accommodate a person of your.....'uniqueness', would you please leave now."  
Moore walked out onto the streets.  
_Huh that was pleasant, dammit guess I'll have to rough it tonight._  
He went down the alley beside the building and using the tail climbed up to the roof, on reaching the top he took out a burnt and ragged sleeping bag.  
_Well this is another fine mess you've gotten us into Moore, this tail is really hampering my possibilities still I tried to cut it off but the thing too tough, *sigh* wonder if I'll meet any people with problems worse than mine?....heh that'll be the day._  
He took out the beam blade he had been given before he left and just wondered.  
"Duracell or Maxell?"  


*******

Tanetris grinned quietly to himself watching the kitsune walk back into the room, hiding a fair bit of awe. Few people who saw Tanetris' collection for the first time were unimpressed, and with good reason. The werewolf had spent centuries building that collection, from the finest weaponsmiths from every corner of the world, as well as quite a few otherworldly sources.   
"An excellent choice you've got there," he commented as he saw what she Karu was holding. "Forged for me by a nine-tails named Drathor I once knew. Ever heard of him?"   
Though Karu quickly hid it, he saw the shock of the name-dropping register. Obviously she had read the smith's mark and saw it was a nine-tails, but Drathor was a nearly legendary weaponsmith of the kitsune, impressive even among nine-tails. How some outsider got Drathor to give him a weapon was a mystery Tanetris planned to take to his grave.   
"Think I'll grab something myself. I love my new katana, but it's gor silver, and I'd rather not kill this other werewolf if he decides we're a threat," he said, brushing past her as she still stood in silence. He was quite sure Karu would be cursing herself later for being so transparent.   
Tanetris looked around. _She didn't even find the rest of it?_ he thought to himself. Being on his home turf certainly was bringing his confidence back. He had dealt with more powerful kitsune than this one, he just had to be careful not to be too taken in by her attractiveness...   
Pulling a dagger out of one spot and placing it in another, one of the walls slid open, revealing a set of stairs down. Anyone who was in the basement of Tanetris' house would notice it was a fair bit smaller than the rest of the house was, but the only passage to the walled-off section was through the main weapons gallery. Looking around at the smaller but much more powerful collection of weapons, Tanetris put a pair of sai that glow when a trap of magical or non-magical making is near, or when the proper command is spoken, in his belt, and strapped a quarterstaff across his back which could be extended anywhere from 4 feet up to 20 feet, and which had command words for several handy spells, not the least of which were teleportation and firestarting. The wonderful thing about both of these weapons was that they would be sent into hammerspace when he became his wolf-form, an enchantment he needed to get placed on his katana soon. Wolf form was faster for running, but it certainly wasn't made for carrying weaponry.   
Finally, Tanetris picked up a ball that was not a weapon, but would allow them to track the other werewolf, and headed back upstairs. He closed the wall and went back into the living room where the kitsune waited. He noticed the puzzled look on her face, clearly she was wondering where these weapons she hadn't seen had come from.   
"From my slightly more hidden collection," he explained as he took a seat on the couch and picked up his drink from earlier.   
"Okay, what now?"   
"Now, we wait for sundown. Then the hunt is on," he spoke a bit smugly.   
With a sudden flash as if to mock Tanetris' cockiness, a man in an Australian duster covered with cake icing appears standing in the middle of his living room. "Hi Tanetris nice to see you again," Gorion says with a smile. "By the way one of those girls did that to us."   
The werewolf sighed. _Is nothing ever easy?_  
  



	13. In MT, These People Are Normal

**Chapter 11- In MT, These People Are Normal...**  
  
  
"YAWN.... Man I didn't realize I was that tired," Moore said.  
He puts away the sleeping bag and climbs down to the streets.  
"I wonder what's going on right now? Place seems to be pretty empty."  
He wanders round the streets of MT and decides to buy a paper, he read every page and got a good idea of what's going on  
"Oh....... Wonder if I have enough cash for a ticket home"  
A man jumped out of the shadows and tried to mug him.  
"Heh-he I don't think so," Moore said.  
He grabbed the mugger by his throat with his tail and threw him back down the alley.  
"*sigh* Now..." he flips through the paper "..Where are the wanted ads.... Gravediggers seem to be pretty busy at the moment.....uh waiter at a restruant, erm no not since last time," his tail kept swinging about hitting customers and knocking over tables. "Must be something I can do...... hmmmm security guard wouldn't be a bad idea....... Of course looking through these obituaries I can see why there are vacancies..."  


*******

Both Spacy and the girl (both still in the comfortable position) were startled by a knocking on the door. The girl instantly turned white and tried to curl up entirely. Spacy remained a tad calmer, but not at all comfortable with this.   
_Kuso, how could that happen? If anyone was near here, I should have known about it already. This can mean 3 things... one, the Board found us and managed to sneak up to here without being detected. That's definitely not good, but also almost impossible. Second, his partner arrived, which also is not a good thing, cus my sanity would be compromised. Third... I have absolutely no clue, but it definitely couldn't be good. Oh well, best to open the door and find out._  
Spacy whispers to the little ball that lied on the couch: "Stay still, I'll open the door and see who it is. Best is that I'm not acting suspicious, okay?"   
There came a whimper from the little and now black furry ball that sounded like 'Okay'. That was enough for Spacy. He went to the door and opened it. But he wasn't prepared for this.   
"Konnichiwa, oh wait, it's morning... Ohayo then? Never can tell time too accurately at my place."   
Looking down, Spacy saw a little girl of about 13 years old, with blond, messy hair, dirtied up, baggy clothes and with a very cute smile looking at him.   
_This certainly is the fourth option... and that isn't supposed to happen often._  
"H-hello Milady?.. What are you doing here?" Spacy stuttered a bit.  
"Oh, just visiting. Came to take a look at your guest too." the little girl said skipping inside.  
"Weeee, what a cute little cat!!!! I can see why you wanted to protect her. Don't worry, you can do so. I won't mind." said the girl, forcibly cuddling the cat.   
_This ain't going to be pretty..._  
"Help, who is this girl? Ack, let me loose you little human!" the cat screamed.  
"Human? I ain't human... but outside your comprehension as well, so I won't bother. Even Spacy doesn't know much about me and he works for me even." said the little girl.  
"Nani? Spacy? That his name? And he works for you? What is going on here?"   
_Time to step in._  
"What she says is true, my name is Spacy and I do work for her. I do jobs for her whenever she needs me or my partner. Preferably without my partner though."  
"Oh come on, you know you love working with her, even though you mostly don't get out unharmed."  
"True, but tell me, why are you here, Milady?"  
"Came to warn you and to give a hint about what to do. There'll be some guys, one of them silver, coming here right about now. I bet they'll trigger the explosive spell first, considering the route they're tracking. That should give you some warning. You can do with them as you want, but I'm sure you want to protect the girl, so don't make it too messy, ne?"  
"Okay, guess it wouldn't be too long for that too happen. Anything else?"   
The little girl seemed to think for awhile...   
"Yeah, do you still have those neat cookies? I want one before I leave ^^."  
"Help yourself, there over at the sink in the jar as usual."  
"Wai! ^_^ Jummy, cookies. Be sure to stock up on them for when I get back. Oh, before I forget... The silver one is like you, though more on the aggressive side. He likes to fight to solve things, but I like him. Try to leave him intact? He could be a good addition to our side, even though he's working for good now. Evil will be wanting to dispose of him not long from now, so he might need help."  
"Okay."  
"Oh, and can you change into your werewolf form. You look so cute ^_^ I want to see that before I leave."  
"Sigh, okay."   
And with that (Spacy couldn't refuse such a cute little girl) Spacy began to shift to his werewolf form.  
As usual with werewolves, his clothes shifted with him and didn't feel any strain from it. But the wolf Spacy turned into was strange all the same.  
All covered in radiant blond fur except for two black stripes going from the back of his neck to his flanks, with an extremely white furred belly, keeping his clear blue eyes even in this form, contrasting with his black nose. But the most peculiar thing was the fact that he had two tails, both as blond as can be, but ending in a black tip.   
"Kawaii ^^!! Okay, I'll be leaving now. Bye!"  
"Bye" came the reply from the Spacy, the now entirely wolf.   
Then the little girl vanished in her own little whateverherhomeis and all was silent.   
"You're strange... Now what?" came the voice of the jet-black cat next to him (still with her eyes bulging a bit).  
"We wait and hope for the best." was the reply.  


*******

Moore was walking down one of the streets in MT when a group of...something darted past him.  
"What was that!?"   
He was too unsure of this place though to give into curiosity and headed for an apartment block, it looked pretty run-down just the way he liked it.  
"Do you have any spare apartments?"  
"Oh another freak, that'd be the sixth today..." the receptionist replied. "Sure number 87 it's the last room on the top."  
Moore takes the key she handed him. "How much is it?"  
"Nothing, I'm making a fortune selling videos of people like you coming in here."  
"Uh........ alright."  
"Now could you sign here, here and here."  
Moore scribbles down his name.  
"Hey kid you only got the one?"   
He started walking towards the stairs and turned his head to face her.  
"For now, yes."   
He walked up the stairs meeting other tenants, when he reached the top floor he went into the room he would be spending his stay in MT for.  
"Heh that makes 5 with demon wings, 4 one eyed people and 17 were-wolves, pretty much like the last place I stayed."   
He shrugs and throws his things onto the bed, he opens up his hold-all and takes out several katanas, metal polish, a red crystal, two desert eagles and a burnt pic of him standing beside a mecha about his size.  
"Yea that's pretty much all there, hope I didn't forget anything...now to see what I've got in my pack."   
He shook out the bag and out dropped several sketchbooks, 2 silver daggers, a game boy advance, mobile phone, a few pics of his EX-GirlF and a burnt, battered, ragged and slashed trench-coat with a red bandanna of the same color.  
"I need to start packing light since I'm on the road, why do I still have these pics." He tossed them out the window.  
He put all his stuff away and jumped on the bed falling asleep.  


*******

Karu managed to get off a slight smirk to herself after Tanetris left. She could have easily gotten into the other chamber-not that the six-tails needed to. A piece of work like this, in a Kitsune's hands, had powers of its own.   
  
_~Flash~ _  
  
Karu leapt up to intercept the man in the Aussie Duster.  
"You again."  
Gorion smiled again, and nodded. "Yep."  
"I take it you still have my plushie."  
"This?" Gorion gestured to the kawaii stuffed fox in his hand.  
Karu smiled and nodded. "You'd wanted to continue questioning us. Isn't it lovely when noone knows what's going on?" Another sly smile.  
"Er...yes." Gorion may have been a bit confused by the fox's manner, but he wasn't going to let it show.  
"Apparently, yer gajiin. In other words, thou art not from around here. Ah well, in these times it doesn't even seem to make that much of a difference. Barring the fact that if you were a bit more observant, you'd realize a few things. I don't know squat."  
_Or I don't have any information that I'm willing to tell you,_ Karu thought to herself.  
"Heh, I'm just a lil ol' six-tailed fox walkin around on two legs, with a eyes for mischief. I'm the type who jumps in, then figures out how cold the water is. And frankly, I have about as much of an idea as you do. What I do know, is that there was another werewolf and a mystical neko of some kind also at the scene-they might know something juicy. Which is why at sundown, we're trackin' them down-with the 'elp o' wotevah nifty little gadgets Tannie here has."  
Gorion blinked again, slightly fazed by the fox's sudden outburst.  
Karu's face lit up, as if she had forgotten something.  
"Yeah, I know about the author's tricks. I'm not stupid. By the way, there's food in the fridge iffen yer hungry."  
"Thanks." Gorion started to head off in that direction.  
Karu sat down, fondled her naginata/nunchaku, then winked at Tanetris.  
"Fox is out of the bag now."  


*******

After talking with Karu he was a bit more knowledgeable about what was going on.  
"So she is a little bit more smarter than the rest of the Kitsune I know. Hmm maybe I should keep my eye on her."  
Then after grabbing a big plate of food and a gallon of orange juice he heads back to the main room and sits down.  
"Now you two probably want to know a little bit more about me. Well he already knows that I am an inspector from the U.S. supernatural division. I was recently transferred here to MegaTokyo to help calm down all the weird things that are happening. I mean these things are even weird for MegaTokyo. Also from what you've seen me do I have some powers of my own. Namely teleport which drains me a lot. That is why I have all this food on my lap. Oh one more thing I'm also telekinetic in other words I can move things with my mind."  


*******

Moore gets up in his bed, puts on his jeans and walk over to the only window that hadn't been boarded up.  
"Sigh, crescent moon...gives me a few weeks then, I need to get some connections here before I can start searching."  
He put on a T-shirt, trenchcoat and bandanna, opened the window and jumped out landing on the roof of the next building, he carried my hold-all with the swords in it.  
"I guess I better see what kind of things come out at night around here."   
  



	14. Star Hockey Players Run Arcades Now?

**Chapter 12- Star Hockey Players Run Arcades Now?**  
  
  
As Gorion was about to dig into his food, Tanetris cleared his throat, drawing the attention of both the kitsune and human. "Excuse me," he said, "Mr. Gorion, you have come into my house uninvited, and I do not recall having offered the hospitality of my food except to Karu here. Unless I see a MegaTokyo Police-issued badge and a search warrant that has been thoroughly reviewed my lawyer, you are illegally trespassing in my home, and I suggest you move along right now before I call the police. I don't know what you're used to in the US, but the MegaTokyo Police Department handles creatures the size of your football stadiums on a regular basis, they would have no problem with you. And don't even **think** of taking the food with you. Goodbye."   
Finished his tirade, Tanetris picked Gorion up by the collar, opened the front door, and tossed him out into the middle of the street where he narrowly dodged a bus. Tanetris slammed the door shut and locked it, then fell back onto the couch where he was sitting. He felt another tension-headache coming on strong.  


*******

From Spacy's home, out walked a little girl. She walked by a tree in the lawn, and shot it a glance as she went by, but didn't say anything.  
All was silent for about five seconds, then a red-haired face dropped out of the leaves, hanging from a branch. Skinny arms lowered a pair of binoculars to its eyes. It was Snicker.  
Peering through the window, Snicker saw a startling striped werewolf and a cat talking excitedly.  
Snicker reached up to his belt (in case I'm doing this badly, he's hanging upside down, knees locked around a tree branch) and grabbed a walkie-talkie. He lowered it to his face and turned it on, not giving the person on the other end a chance to speak before talking. "d00d, 7|-|3 74rg37 |-|45 b33n 5ig|-|73d."  
"Beg pardon?" Came the voice on the other line.  
Switching languages effortlessly, Snicker repeated his message in further detail. "I found the person you're looking for." He gave the address and the voice on the other end crowed.  
"Yes!"  
"Hey, why you 'werewolves anonymous' or whatever the hell you are want to find this guy, anyway?"  
"Long story. Say, you _did_ remember to use the scent bead we gave you, right?"  
Suddenly, the werewolf turned and stared directly at Snicker.  
"Damn. Knew I forgot somethin'."  
"You fool! Now he knows we're coming!"  
"Oh." Snicker was silent for a split second. "I still get my thousand yen, right?"  
"Why should we pay you?! You've blown it-"  
"d00d," Snicker reverted to l33t to let the person on the other end know he was serious. "3y3 n33d 7|-|47 m0n3y f0r b33r. W|-|3n 3y3 d0n'7 g37 m4|-| b33r, 3y3 g37 pi553d."  
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "You're one of those leet freaks, aren't you?" The voice was cracked.  
"j0."  
The voice cleared its throat. "Your money will be available at the office, sir."  
l33t-inflicted individuals, while not good in long-term thinking, were quick for the moment. "3y3 dunn0, d00d, 3y3 7|-|ink 3y3'm pr377y pi553d already."  
"Because of the...um...added danger of being discovered, you'll get an extra...100 percent!"  
"200, d00d, 0r j00 l053 4n 4rm."  
"Of course!" The voiced sounded pained. Snicker smiled and retreated to the tree. He wasn't fond of this particular job, and he personally hoped the werewolf did get away. He hated bloody money. But he did need his b33r.  


*******

Wizard of Kitty waited...and waited...and waited for BG to answer her. She sighed and then decided to wave her arms in front of his face. "Hilo? Anyone home?" Still, no answer.   
She grabbed out a sign and held it in front of him. It said, "You still here?" She waved it a little bit, then gave up with that idea.   
Then she came up with the most hideous idea of all. She grabbed out pink bunny ears and put it on his head and then painted whiskers on his face.   
She took a few steps waiting for him to be in some sort of rage.  


*******

Moore was jumping from building to building and spotted.  
"Are those.... pink... rabbit ears?" Moore said. "...No-no just move on, wait a minute that's BG, who's that with him?"   
Moore crept close to the edge of the building.  
"That's certainly BG, but who's that with him, I've seen her before but where?"   
His tail now wagging from side to side showed his curiosity he slowly climbed down the building keeping hidden and watching his fellow warrior and the girl next to him.  
"I recognize her, that's WoK."  


*******

After dusting himself off Gorion walked back to the apartment door and talked just loud enough to be heard clearly.  
"Sorry that was rude of me. I should have asked before taking the kitsunes hospitality as yours. Oh by the way I do have a MegaTokyo police badge. Like that changes anything."  
He waits a couple of seconds.  
"I am truly sorry. Perhaps we did start things off on the wrong foot."  


*******

Derian Hatcheter emerged from the Arena into the gathering dusk. He inhaled the cool night air, and sighed. He had been here for a few years, and was still surprised by this city.   
The war, and the kidnapping of Kimiko that followed a short time later, had scarred the city. No civilians were anywhere to be seen while the battles raged. Now, it was teeming with life. Streets full of cars, sidewalks full of people, brightly-lit storefronts, all a testament to the resiliency that is MegaTokyo.   
It was reflected in his team. They had struggled before that time, but since the fighting (and Derian's suspension for missing a game) had ended, they were undefeated in 10 games. That's right, the MegaTokyo Gamers had vaulted to the top of the Japan Hockey League, and played to sell out crowds every time.  
Derian stepped out onto the street. It was crowded, but he had no trouble walking quickly. Being a gaijin in a city full of them was nothing special, but being six-and-a-half feet tall got you noticed. Having a black eye or stitches on your face was that much more impressive. Light brown hair, gray eyes, and a goatee rounded the whole "stick out like a sore thumb" routine.   
He walked briskly down the street. One of the other results of the war was that he was now the proprietor of an arcade. The K. A., they called it. They being the soldiers of the former Kimiko Army. The troops sold their weapons for arcade games and Mosh Mosh Revolution machines while Diet Water Czar, their leader, and Derian were rescuing Kimiko from the clutches of the nefarious Dom.   
Derian made his way through the arcade, past the rows of flashing lights and blaring punk music. He slipped though an unmarked door to the back area. He stopped into his office briefly, checked his email, then made his way to the meeting room.   
"Hey, Hatch," greeted him, from several different sources, in a few different languages. One thing about MegaTokyo is you don't have to speak Japanese here. Everybody understands everybody else.   
"'Sup, fellas. What's happenin' tonight?"   
He was given a brief run-down of business information:   
One of the Mortal Combat machines was out, after a ninja got mad about being beaten by a Swedish kid. Probably one of Derian's teammates.   
Only one MMR injury in the last 48 hours, but it was a pretty nasty concussion.   
Plans were coming along well to build a paintball field on the roof of the warehouse/arcade.   
Still no success in the negotiations to get an Anna Miller's opened in the Arcade.   
And then the important stuff:   
Kimiko, Erika, DietWaterCzar, and Cornielius the Rent-a-zilla had departed MegaTokyo that morning, for a much-needed vacation.   
"Who would you guys rather have a chaperone," Derian asked, "Rent-a-zilla, or Erika?"   
Rent-a-zilla was the unanimous answer.   
And then current events:   
"The incident in the harbor seems to be a lot bigger than we thought," explained Ishi, a native MTer. "There seems to have been drastic effects within the werewolf circles. Others are also out and about."   
"Like who?" Derian asked.   
"BGMaster has been spotted roaming the streets of MT."   
"Nobody spots BG if he doesn't want to be seen. Do we know what he's up to?"   
"{We have an idea}," began Henrich. He's a German, who experimented with raves before joining the Kimiko Army last year. He still had friends among the Mihoists.   
"{Rumor has it there is some infighting among the senior leadership of the Miho Cult. It looks like others are jealous of BGMaster's close relationship with Miho}."   
"Looks like Vorpal Blade wasn't the only bad apple over there," Derian remarked.   
"{Also, a shadowy figure has occasionally been seen on rooftops near BGMaster. No word on whether he is an escort or a spy}."   
"Escort. BG's too sharp to let a tail hang on him for more than ten seconds."   
"Finally," began Pierre, a French-Canadian, and a teammate of Derian's. "Agent Takahashi, of the Himitsu Desu Police sent a message. He asked you to look into this, in your own, unique way. And he wanted to remind you, not to let a war start."   
"I remember." Those were the agent's words to Derian, when they parted ways after the last battle.   
"Gentlemen, we must be vigilant for the next few days. MegaTokyo is doing very well right now, all things considered. Let's try to keep it that way."  
"Spread the word to all the troops, keep their ears and eyes open, and their heads down. Get me the info, and I'll act."   
With that, Derian rose and left the meeting room. The others filed out after him. Pierre followed him to his office.   
"It's five days until our next game," he informed Derian, in French-accented English (or is that French-accented English-accented Japanese?).   
"That should be plenty of time to get this resolved." Derian sat down at his desk, pulling out his keys. "If I miss practice, tell the coach I've got the runs, or something."   
He laughed, and promised to smooth things over.   
Derian unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out his weapon, Kar-B'Noh. It was a hockey stick, whose shaft collapsed to a mere ten inches. The blade had transformed into some kind of crystalline material during the last war, and glowed with a pale red light. A light which glowed from Derian's eyes, whenever he drew the weapon to fight.   
Tucking it into the back of his belt, Derian put on his jacket, and walked into the coming night.   
  



	15. Headin' For the Forest

**Chapter 13- Headin' For the Forest**  
  
  
"Wolf, do you have a computer here?"   
Spacy looked at Neko with those piercing blue eyes.   
"Yeah, it's in the room by the kitchen. By the way call me Spacy from now on."   
With out a word of acknowledgment she slipped down from the couch, and padded to the computer.   
_It's not like you had a choice. You needed to play the damsel in distress role. All the whimpers, and look of fear amounts to something. The wolf is loyal to you now. He trusts you._  
Yet the cat felt bad. She had no conscience. That was for humans. She had not been human since…ever.   
_Jeez, you should be proud of yourself for the great acting job you did. Don't go soft now._  
Changing quickly to human form again to type she flicked open the machine.   
Quickly going to a message board she typed in her request.   
From Crsh667  
Time: 9pm EST  
Post # 1  
In need of assassin/omnipotent authors or anybody with reasonable power/skill  
Job: Will fill in later  
Pay: Depending on outcome. Will pay in anything, even beer  
-Thank you  
-Crash667  
-P.S. You will get a quick background check, and then given the address.  
P.P.S. No vibrating sheep of doom please   
She turned the machine off again.   
_The wolf won't like the new people I play to hire. Well he wants to get out alive doesn't he?_  
"Yes the wolf will understand"   
So yet again she had rationalized an irrational decision by talking to herself.   
Changing into cat form (and knocking a few mirrors off the wall on the way) she walked back to where the wolf was watching a tree outside with a dude standing on a branch.   
_The other wolf will come. He will join our attempt. And we will wait..._  


*******

Moore's phone started beeping and he opened it up to check the forum he was listed with.  
"Hmm skill and powers, that I've got.... Don't want beer, it's pretty vague but still I need the cash, assassin hmm I've done that before."  
He types in a reply.  
From Koryorto  
Time: 9:10pm EST  
Post #58  
I'm willing to accept the job can you give anymore details?  
-Saiyonara   
*post*  
"Knowing my luck it'll take months for a reply."  


*******

Karu took a sidelong glance at Tanetris, and smirked. "Well now that he's developed some manners, do we let him back in?"  
Tanetris spoke through clenched jaws. "Are you kidding?"  
"What do you think?" The kitsune's ever-present smile turned sly again. "Soo....why sundown?" Karu picked up the little white ball, pretending to peer into its depths, then tilted her delicately shaped head back up. The sky was just starting to become tinged with yellow. "Speakin' o' which, it's getting near sunset."   


*******

Neko heard the computer beep. There must have been a reply to her message. Quickly she shot for the computer.   
Scanning the reply, she traced the guy.   
_His name is Moore. Not the name of any Council member I know. Let's do a quick background check._  
Background check for Moore in MegaTokyo file  
Status: New arrival  
Associations: None  
Warnings: None   
Re:  
From Crash667  
Time: 9:20pm EST  
Post #2  
Your background check went fine. Please come to this address as soon as possible. Some details can be only given in person.   
Also be sure to come by the right door unless you want to get mauled. ^-^  


*******

Tanetris lifted his head to look out the window, nodding. Almost sunset, which meant it was time to get this show on the road or wait for tomorrow night. As tempting as giving up on the day was, he knew he couldn't keep Karu entertained for 24 hours, and he didn't want a bored kitsune on his hands.   
"Back in the weapons gallery, there's a pair of blue and red pendants, just left of the throwing knives. Get them for me please? When worn, anyone who doesn't have the sister-pendant and attempts to teleport to within 100 feet of the wearer gets dumped in the middle of the Pacific instead. Should keep that guy off our backs," he spoke.   
While the kitsune went for the pendants, Tanetris took out the bloody hair he had acquired earlier. Pressing a button, the ball came apart at the middle, and he put the hair in, closing it again just as Karu returned with the pendants, already wearing one. Putting his on, Tanetris beckoned her to follow him upstairs, where both slipped out of a window where they both easily leaped onto the roof of the house behind his. As the last rays of the sun dwindled away over the horizon, the ball began humming and vibrating. Tanetris dropped it, and despite the fact that it was made of metal, it bounced back up nearly to his shoulders. After several moments of bouncing in place, the ball bounced four feet away, ahead and slightly to the left of the way they were facing, and bounced in place there, waiting to be followed.   
Tanetris remained in half-wolf form, preferring to have full access to his weapons over the slight speed advantage of full-wolf form, particularly the trap-detecting sai. Turning to Karu, he simply said, "Let's go," and they were off, both running at full-speed toward whatever was awaiting them.   


*******

After sitting there for maybe a minute or more Gorion heard a sound.  
"That must be the tracking ball I saw. Hmm I do not have enough power left to teleport. So maybe I can follow from the sky. Levotate and fly."  
He flies in to the air and sees them running at full speed. Then he flies high and fast so not to be noticed. He uses his sunglasses to track them.  
"Hopefully they will lead me to the other werewolf."   


*******

"Wonder wha- *beep beep* oh a reply.... That's not..... Too far, man I really don't want to leave those two.... Still a job's a job"  
Moore climbed back up the building and jumped from one to the other, he got to the target address and jumped down from the building opposite.  
_Okay quick equipment check..... Okay everything here, now what door was it? Oh yea the right._  
He walked over to the building keeping a look out for anybody in the shadows.  
_It'd be just my luck if Slash is here, *shrugs* now should I knock or what.... Eh I'll just knock_  
"Why do I feel like I should've brought that silver dagger?"   
He knocked lightly on the door.  


*******

Sean opened his eyes. MiMizu was suddenly gone, and he was somehow standing on top of some building somewhere.   
_Did I miss an entire day?_ he thought, looking at his watch. It was set back an hour from when he last remembered looking.  
_Looks like I've got to get off this building... _  
With a quick look left and right, Sean was suddenly enveloped in light, and the light shrunk down to a tiny size, and there appeared a much smaller Sean, less then two inches tall. Wings flipped out from his back, small and fluffy.  
_Better stay in this form for awhile, besides the council-types said if I interfered I could get terminated instantly. Best not be seen._  
With that, and a light jump, Sean soon found himself soaring over MegaTokyo. Being in a...well, let's call it a "mini guardian" form, Sean instinctively looked around for a place to be, and something to do. There had to be somebody around here that needed council of some sort.... Not that he was any good at the job.   
_Hm... sunset. It'll be getting dark soon......._  


*******

"Ha~ha." Karu was in high spirits. Running around in the dark...thin silver of crescent moon in the sky...chaos brewing...this was the sort of thing Karu lived for. She let out a joyful cry and sprinted ahead of the silver wolf several meters, dashed through the open door of an apartment, leapt out the next door, then sat down and waited of "Tannie" to catch up, little white ball bounding along in front of him.  
"Looks like we're heading for the Urufu Forest District." commented the six-tails, looking up at the terrain ahead as she loped along. A keen-eyed person (or in this case, fox or wolf) could spot the hints of treetops through the rapidly thinning apartment complexes of MegaTokyo. Not that forests in the middle of MT were unusual; Urufu was just one of the many districts here in MegaTokyo that catered to "special needs."  
"Yeah." grunted Tanetris, not particularly talkative at the moment.  
Karu however, was.  
"This'll be a lot of fun. I know the Urufu's pretty well. They're an older haunt of mine. F'that matter, I might still have a couple of contacts there. I wonder how old Shoka's doing..." The kitsune rambled on, not really even listening to herself. "...And that's how I single-handedly dispatched a pack of Cultists that were invading my den during the first Fanboy war. Not that I don't mind a good rave. Fun stuff. But as a werecat I knew once said-'It's fun to play in the dark, but you have to come up for air eventually.'--Oh, and by the way, your sais are glowing"  
"Hn," Tanetris glanced down at his belt. "So they are. THEY ARE?-" Tanetris looked up just in time to see a large spiked log drop down out of the tree-tops, straight at him.  
Tanetris and Karu reacted instantly, both in different ways. Tanetris flung himself at the ground, going flat. Karu, on the other paw, jumped agilely up and vaulted over the swinging log.  


*******

AC scanned through the information on her computer screen, looking for anything of interest. Eventually she came across a message posted on one message board that looked promising. There were all ready replies, but she might still get lucky. She quickly posted a reply of her own.   
From ACDragonMaster  
Time: 10:35pm EST  
Post #1  
RE: From Crsh667  
Time: 9pm EST  
Post # 1  
In need of assassin/omnipotent authors or anybody with reasonable power/skill  
Sounds interesting. I have considerable experience with plot manipulation via Author Omnipotence, and can give examples of previous work as well as demonstrations. Let me know if you're interested.   
After posting her reply AC went back to looking for more potential targets for both demonstration and for fun.  



	16. Again With the Long Posts

**Chapter 14- Again With the Long Posts...**   
  
As he waited for the door to open Moore juggled a few energy balls while polishing his sword with his tail.  
"I still don't get it, what's with all the were-wolves.."  
He looks up at the sky.  
"...Isn't even a full moon, I've got about 3...maybe 4 weeks until I change... ahh."  
He rubs his shoulder, which was bandaged up.  
"Still hurts.... Hopefully there won't be any more sped up evolutions."  


*******

File #547291. WizardofKitty. Allied with the Piroist factions, played a major part in the CoM incident. There was a whole lot more information available here than there was on BGMaster. It wasn't that I minded her presence, but it did mean I had another mark to keep alive. A task that could be very difficult in this city.   
"Nevermind that Alek, just remember what you're here for," he muttered to himself as the newcomer was waving her hands in front of BGMaster, trying to get a response. Stupid server lag.   
"Remember your orders..."   
  
_Flashback_  
  
The blasted phone was ringing. Why was the phone ringing? This was his dream, and there were no phones in it. Alek opened my eyes. The ringing didn't stop. Now what the...?   
Oh.   
He levered himself into a sitting position on the bed and reached for the phone. No... That was a gun. The phone was further away. He got it on the second try.   
"Hello?"   
The voice on the other end was distorted, fake. Designed to make the caller unidentifiable.  
"There is a man in MegaTokyo. A Mihoist operative of very high rank. He took part in the CoM incident. His name is BGMaster. Do you know of whom I speak?"   
That woke Alek up. He activated the call tracer attached to the phone before responding. No cynicism or sarcastic wit now, even he know when to be serious.   
"I know of him."   
"Good. You will find him in the MegaTokyo industrial center, in a building held by the Anti-Cult of Miho. Find him. Kill him."   
Who the hell was this? He glanced at the tracer, still working. "What?"   
"Aegis." The voice said slowly. There was a click, then the line went dead. Alek looked at the tracer, somewhere in Japan, but that was all it got.   
Alek awoke to the sound of a phone ringing. What a weird dream that had been. The phone ringing must've triggered it.   
He picked it up and answered with usual Tuesday-morning finesse. "This'd better be good, now make it quick."   
"Download packet 991c" Click.   
"Ah crap," he said aloud. Not good.   
Alek got up and powered up the Athlon box sitting on his desk. That call had been important, a mission from the Council.   
Wonderful, this probably meant that they were abandoning the undercover job in Sony America and the EDS project and sending him in to clean up some trouble spot.   
The mission packet was shorter than his little sister, but it got its point across.   
Go to MegaTokyo, find Operative BGMaster. He is currently being held in the industrial sector by the Anti-CoM. Kill the A-CoM heretics and rescue BGMaster, then escort him. Keep him alive at all costs.   
Alek closed the system and grabbed his pack off the couch of the shabby hotel room. His wristcomp lay on the table next to his Deagle, the former strapped to its customary place on his right forearm, the latter strapped surely into a shoulder rig. Over that went his trench. Alek doubted he'd need more firepower than that until he got to the city. On went the backpack and he was ready to go.   
Check out time. Alek punched the overclock stud on the Athlon and headed out the door. By the time he got to the lobby, he could smell the box melting down back in the room. He walked past the check-in desk and a bored bellhop, through the doors and out into the LA morning. Gods it was cold out here.   
Alek was apparently headed back to MegaTokyo, the heart of it all. Back to the place that had been the center of at least two near-apocalypses and the location of the Cave of Evil in all its glory.   
With all the people they had in MT, there must be something big going down in they needed him there.  
  
_End Flashback_  
  
Alek looked on at the two in the street below me. He wasn't listening to what they were saying, even though it wouldn't have been difficult with his augmented hearing, it wasn't important. He was concentrating on about five blocks in all directions, listening for even the slightest sound of unusual activity.   
For now at least, they were stopped in the middle of the street, so he had a chance to check over the sniper rifle BGMaster had handed him for the millionth time. Obsessive maybe, but he'd had guns jam at exactly the wrong time before, once it had cost Alek his arm...   
_Wait. A. Minute. What was I doing? _  
Alek snapped the clip back into the gun and vaulted over to the next roof. He landed, pulled a pair of silver mirrored shades out of his pocket and slid them on, with just the right angle to send a glint of sunlight off them and the muzzle of the rifle.   
He kept forgetting the number one rule of the CoM: Do it with style. His writer must be really tired.   
Oh well, he had time to sleep while BGMaster was NPCed out. Alek walked over to the corner of the roof and stepped up onto the low rise there. With sunlight shining off the edges of the rifle, his glasses, and the steel studs on the collar of his trench; and with a crosswind blowing his hair about his face and whipping his jacket around my legs; Alek waited for some fool to dare try and take on operatives of the Cult of Miho.  


*******

BGMaster blinked and shook his head. Oy. Serious server lag. Then he noticed something. Somebody had painted whiskers on his face and given him cat ears. He shook his head and they disappeared. _Wizard of Kitty. Had to be._  
Ah well. The girl was utterly insane, but BG liked her. He glanced around. There she was, with a guilty expression on her face, trying to slip away. He sighed. "Kitty, come over here."   
She did so, very timidly. "Uh, sorry about the cat-ears..."   
"No big deal. What are you doing around the city? I thought you were taking a break for a while."   
She shrugged. "Dunno. Things weren't colorful enough at home." BG held up a handful of skittles. "Thanks! I still haven't quite run out yet!"   
BG was amazed. Kitty went through skittles at about the same speed Ranma Saotome went through food. Ah well. Some things were inexplicable.   
"Be careful, alright? There's some nasty people after me and they might decide to come after my comrades from the last incident."   
"Uh, okie. You're confuzzling. But you gave me skittles, so that's ok!" She gave him another facesplitting grin and wandered off. BG sighed again. She'd just wander around as her usual oblivious self. He was pretty sure that whatever his unnamed enemies sent after her would be useless, however. She knew quite a bit of magic. Plus, they would underestimate her. He smirked. Everybody did. Just like with me...  
He noticed a movement in the shadows around him. It was dusk. An appropriate time for whatever was going to attack him to attack. And then it did.   
Two blurs flew at BG from the side of the street. He leapt up in the air, meeting them both in a whirlwind of kicks, his cloak sweeping around through the air. They were good. Very good.   
Not good enough. BG landed on the other side of them, whirling around with a smirk on his face. His assailants picked themselves up off the ground where he had slammed them.   
Werewolves. WTF? BG threw back his coat and grabbed two Deagles, making sure that the ammunition was silver bullets. He cocked them and pointed at the werewolves.  
"Who sent you? Talk." He left the 'or die' unspoken. Unnecessary threats weren't stylish.   
BG saw muscles tense up in both of them. They leapt. As he twisted around, a hairy fist blew past his face close enough for him to feel the wind from its passage. Exactly how he wanted it. He jammed the gun into the chest of the werewolf and fired.   
The report echoed through the street as one of his assailants collapsed. BG whirled, his other gun coming to rest on the temple of his second attacker.   
"Well? You've had your chance." He snarled up at BG.   
"You'll never find him! He never leaves a clue! HAHAHA!" There was something wrong with this creature. However, it had given BG some information he needed.   
"So he's one of the quiet ones, then. Appreciated."   
Bang.   


*******

Spacy wasn't sure if the girl had noticed the guy in the tree, but he sure did. The guy reeked of beer, and lots of it. He was pretty sure His Lady noticed him too, but knowing her, she was going to find this all very amusing. Well, Spacy wasn't the one to let this get him down, especially since he definitely didn't know about that particular tree. Poor guy...   
"Wolf, do you have a computer here?"   
_Hmm, a computer... of course I do, but was that important now? Oh well, no harm done in letting her use it. Still, a strange change of attitude. Guess she ain't all that vulnerable after all, but that's not my concern. I just hope she ain't going to do anything stupid._  
"Yeah, it's in the room by the kitchen. By the way call me Spacy from now on."  
Without a word of acknowledgment she flipped down from the couch, and padded to the computer.   
_Now that's a bit rude. Nothing to worry about. Now to get back at intently staring at the guy in the tree and enjoy the show ^_^. I can use a bit of entertainment._  
*BEEP* With that computer beep, the girl went off again to the box, to check on it.   
_Hmm, a forum reply? Well, her stuff. I'll stay out of that. The other guys ain't due here yet and this will be entertaining. Hmm, she should really stick to a form sometimes, it's like she isn't sure which she fits best in._  
Suddenly, the guy in the tree was quite shaken up a bit. A big grey hand grabbed him by his shirt and was shaking him around.   
_Weee, there's my good boy, right on schedule. ^^_  
The guy didn't know the tree's where Spacy always dumped some food for some stray silverback gorillas in the woods. They always came at the same time and then left for quite some time. But they hate trespassers with their food, so they grabbed the guy, gave him a few wacks and then grabbed the food and the now unconscious guy and took off.   
They'll probably leave him at their lair. Wai! That was refreshing. Now to get ready for any trouble ahead.  
With that Spacy shifted to his half-wolf and half-human form. This was the typical mix most true lycanthropes can shift to, though Spacy was a little big bigger than most wolfs. This also was a trait that His Lady noticed in him. She always looked for the rarest people. They always fitted her cause more nicely.   
_Now time to gear up. Let's see, I think I'm going to need my partner on this one, though she probably won't make it in time. Oh well, best to call her as soon as possible._  
Spacy grabbed a little bouncy ball from a drawer and threw it in the air. Suddenly, the ball grew some bat-wings and vanished in a 'poof!'. The little thing would alert his partner that he needed her help, though His Lady probably already informed her. Then he lifted the rug and uncovered a trapdoor to a hole in the ground. That was where Spacy kept his favorite gear to have in trouble. He grabbed on a dark-green armlet with a blood-red gem in it and put it on his right arm. This would be Spacy's favorite toy when fighting, changing its form to whatever claw-type weapon Spacy wanted right then. He was best with claw-types, including his own.   
_I'll just keep this as a little surprise. It helps to have those extra inches of pointy only when I needed it most._  
After that Spacy grabbed what seemed liked some kind of weird body-armor going from his left shoulder to his right hip and then back also latched around his waist to keep it in place, like two straps. This particular armor consisted of reflective squares of a special metal all around the shoulder-part. The belt-part of it was fitted a hold for another weapon. Grabbing this, it seemed to be just a little black metal stick, with some gold-plating on both sides and white runes on the black metal, one of the runes indicating what looked like nine tails. It could extend to the size of a war-staff and was really handy in leaving people hurt enough not to follow him retreating, but still intact. Still, Spacy preferred using his claws and armlet for that purpose, but the staff was a family heirloom. It was given to him by his father, which told him it was made by a very late grandmother of his mother.  
Spacy knew about both his parents, but was saddened when his mother died in a magic accident. His father raised Spacy up to about half a century ago (that's when he got killed in an incident with dragons), teaching him about being a werewolf. He also told him that he was different from the other wolves, cause of his mother being a kitsune. Spacy sighed a little remembering his parents.   
_I miss them. But I will make them proud of me. I moved to here because the forests around MegaTokyo tended to be a calm before the storm. Guess the calm is about to be broken, now that the storm is spreading. Okay, what's next?_  
"Wow." said a voice behind him.  
"I had to gear up. I don't want to fight, but all this stuff is handy in scaring people off. And they're excellent when actually used."  
"I don't hope we're going to need it."  
"Me neither, but I'm betting I'll have to. Don't worry, I'll protect you. I promised that, ne? Plus I can't leave such a pretty damsel fending for herself."  
"I'm pretty good in fending for myself, don't expect me to just sit here, while you might screw up. I'd be dead for sure then. I'm going to give my all if it's needed. And I also have a little surprise up my sleeve."   
That last bit sounded a bit over-assuring, but Spacy had no clue about what the girl did on the pc, so he took little note of it.   
"In that case, you want a weapon too? Last thing I got here is for emergencies. I'll get it for you."   
With that, Spacy reached in the hole for a final time. He got a scimitar in a red scabbard with an appropriate belt and tossed it to the girl.   
"That scimitar has been used alot by my partner. It's been enhanced by her magic, making it excellent for defending until you find a disabling spot on the opponent. It'll adjust to your style a bit, but prefers its own, so don't use it when you don't need it." were Spacy's instructions.  
"The blade has a mind of its own?"  
"Not really. You can say it took over my partners manners of handling things and it ain't used to others wielding it."  
"You're partner sounds interesting. You guys get along very much, I presume. If she's comfortable enough to leave this here."   
A sweatdrop formed on Spacy's forehead.   
"Eh, let's not get into that. I'll be waiting outside for our guests to arrive."  
"Outside? You're not preferring an element of surprise?"  
"Why would we need it? We're not the ones getting into a fight, this is outside MegaTokyo, so not under any jurisdiction. All in all, I'll congratulate them in getting here in one piece and explain to them that they're welcome for a cookie and then welcome to scram. That is hopefully sufficient."  
"I'm not so confident in that."  
"I am, and this makes sure I can relax a little. Sitting outside is very calming, especially with all the birds chirping."   
With that Spacy went outside and sat on a stump in front of his house. He watched the skies and noticed the birds weren't chirping. He failed to notice all the smashing and crashing sounds of his traps and spells, but nevertheless drew the same conclusion.   
_They're getting close. Let's hope this is going to end well._  
  



	17. Booby Traps and Ninja Burger

**Chapter 15- Booby Traps and Ninja Burger**  
  
  
"Huh? Sounds like no ones home....." Moore said. "This is the..." He glanced at the address, "...ah ...that explains quite a lot, I'm at the wrong fricken address. *sigh* should've made sure earlier.." He takes out his map. "...That'd be out in the country...I'll use Hanzos trick"   
He pushed himself off the door and went into a runner's stance facing the direction he wanted to head.  
_3...2...1.._  
His body burst into flames and his body became a blur as it darted off into the distance.  
"With this I should make pretty good time"   
He arrived in a few minutes, he dusted off his scorched clothes and jumped from tree-to tree towards the house managing to avoid some traps except for an explosive one.  
_Oh....... nuts._  
The trap exploded sending him flying in low orbit toward the cottage, before he landed he grabbed onto a tree branch and pulled himself up triggering a spike trap which drove itself through his left leg.  
_It's.....not.... a lot... of pain... bear it...._  
"JEEEZUS CHRIST!!!!!"  
Moore pulled out the spike and put it back into its position, he fell from the tree and landed heavily on his now bleeding leg.  
"This is not my day"   
He caught sight of the half-wolf beast sitting in front of the cottage, he limped up to a hopefully trap free tree and made his way to the side.  
"Oh jeez another wolf, half human to boot"   
He moved slowly and awkwardly through the trees and got to the door on the right side of the house and he knocked several times.  
_C'mon open up already._  
He wrapped a bandage he had in his pack around his wound and put out the small fire on his hair.  
_This better be worth my while._  


*******

After a while and a bunch of noises from traps going off below. Gorion noticed that they were heading for a cottage.  
"Hmm well I will go ahead of them to that cottage and hover there for a bit. Just in case they might need me. Well I can observe them. So I can figure out what the hell is going on."  
Then while he waits. He taps on the sleeve of his jacket and a small vidscreen appears.  
"Hello," Fred said.  
"Hi Fred I would like to make a call."   
"To whom."   
"A place that can deliver food in the air. I am starving."   
"Let me guess you used teleport one too many times again."   
"Well...it was not my fault."   
"It is always your fault."   
"But it really was not my fault this time!"   
"That is what you always say."   
"Just shut up and get me the food please."   
"Ok I will call your usual place."   
"Hmm if my day job at the police agency paid better I would not have had to start up this detective agency. Then I would not have met Fred. Nice guy but he is a bit annoying at times."   
"It is on the way here. I will send it to you when it gets here."   
"Thanks."  


*******

Shortly after Gorion had finished his call, he felt a tap on the shoulder. Whirling around to see who it is, Gorion encountered.... a ninja. From Ninja burger, to be exact. The Ninja bowed deeply and handed Gorion his bags of food.  
"One Samurai Chicken Sandwich, One Double Ninja Burger, One Onion Death Blossom, and a Large French Fries of Our Ancestors. That will be 20000 Yen." Gorion handed the masked ninja the money, who then bowed, and disappeared in a flash of smoke.  


*******

Derian walked into "MegaRamen", a popular noodle joint on the East Side of MegaTokyo. The restaurant was run by the family of two members of the Kimiko Army, twin brothers Chan and Wang How. Their mother, Tokomo, was KA sympathizer. Good thing to, they needed her to sign the permission slips so her 16-year old sons could be issued their firearms.   
Mrs. How greeted Derian as he entered the restaurant.   
"Welcome, Hatcheter-san," she said, with a small bow. "Would you like something to eat?"   
"Thank you, no, I just need to pick up some equipment."   
"Of course. I'm glad you are watching these recent incidents. MegaTokyo is a reckless place."   
Derian laughed. "It is, isn't it? Still, I wouldn't trade it for anyplace else."   
"Neither would I," she said with a smile. She led him through the kitchen, into a walk-in refrigerator. Lifting a box of cucumbers, she tapped a code into a small keypad. The back wall slid away, revealing a large storeroom.   
"Thank you," Derian said, stepping into the room.   
"Let me know if I or my sons can do anything else for you." With that, she returned to her work.   
Derian entered the storeroom. More of a weapons locker, really, one of many they had throughout the city. While the Kimiko Army was officially disbanded, they kept their resources and infrastructure hidden. They were 'underground', you could say, waiting until other Idol needed protection, or rescuing, again.   
Derian sat down at a computer, booting the Athalon to check the latest status reports:   
Scattered reports of werewolf activity; arguments, fights, and general irritability.   
Several Mihotists raves had been canceled, with no official reason. A rebellion in their council, a purge, or did somebody forget to pay those electric bills again?   
The Nagasaki Rockets won tonight, pulling within three points of Derian's team in the JHL standings.   
Finally, it seemed there were agitators on the city forums. A link to a message was sent to Derian:   
From Crsh667  
Time: 9pm EST  
Post # 1  
In need of assassin/omnipotent authors or anybody with reasonable power/skill  
Job: Will fill in later  
Pay: Depending on outcome. Will pay in anything, even beer  
-Thank you  
-Crash667  
-P.S. You will get a quick background check, and then given the address.  
P.P.S. No vibrating sheep of doom please   
For now, there were two bites. One from an "ACDragonMaster", the second from a "Koryorto." Derian did a quick check on those names. The first brought up virtually nothing. Apparently, another foreigner who had recently come to town. The second...   
"Oh, boy." Moore was back in town. He had been quite helpful during the CoM incident. Derian could only hope that his intentions were as honorable this time around, 'cause he knew he couldn't handle him if he was up to no good.   
_No, he told himself, he fights evil across multiple realities, or something like that. He'll keep his nose clean. _  
_Now as long as he doesn't lead any more extra-dimensional foes into MegaTokyo... _  
Derian picked up a telephone and called the arcade.   
"Pierre here."   
"Pierre, this is Hatch. You've seen this request for assassins and omnipotent authors, right?"   
"Yes, I sent that to you. And before you ask, I've already traced the info from the original message."   
"And?"   
"No ID on this Crash667. They're either new here, or using anonymous info. However, we were able to trace the IP it came from. It belongs to someone called 'Spacy'. There's little info about him, but we do know he's a werewolf. No info if he's with the council or not.  
"By the way, did you see that Nagasaki won?"   
"Yes, you sent me that, also," Derian answered.   
"Oh, right. What are you going to do now?"   
"Check this Spacy fellow out."   
"All right. I'll keep you posted on any new developments."   
"Thanks Pierre."   
Derian hung up the phone and shut off the computer. He grabbed a bag of his gear that he had stored here, just for an occasion like this. It contained a full set of hockey pads, which doubled for him as armor.   
He quickly strapped on the knee/shin pads. Under his baggy jeans, they wouldn't be noticeable. He put the chest protect, shoulder and elbow pads, and the helmet and gloves into a large backpack.   
Derian grabbed a pair of enforcers off of a shelf, and shoulder holsters for each of them. He opened a locked drawer, and pulled out four clips of silver bullets.   
He put on his jacket, and was about to sling on his backpack when the phone rang.   
"This is Hatcheter."   
"Hatch-san, this is Ishi. I've been monitoring the police radios, and found something interesting."   
"What is it?" Derian asked my KA subordinate.   
"Two werewolves have been found dead on the south side of town. Shot with silver bullets."   
"Could it be a coincidence?" Derian asked.   
"Possibly, but I doubt it. The cops say they can't find any shell casings at the scene. Either someone was using a revolver, or they're very thorough."   
"That could be BGMaster."   
"How do you know?"   
"I don't, but both of those scenarios sound like the type of 'style' he would go for. I'll head down there, he may be hanging around the area."   
"Okay. Take one of the radios, so we can keep in touch with you."   
"You got it."   
Derian walked to the back of the storeroom. There, conveniently, was a Kawasaki motorcycle. Opening the back door, he pushed it into the alley. He started the engine, and pulled out onto the street.   
Once on the street, he popped up on the back wheel, rapidly speeding toward his destination, with style (he hoped).   
The fighting had already started. Derian was going to stop it. If he couldn't do that, he sure wasn't going to be left out of it.   


*******

The two werewolves never had a chance. Alek watched as BGMaster ducked a massive swing from one and put a round into its chest. Silver ammo and hollow tip by the look of the damage.   
The second creature caught one between his eyes a second later.   
Again Alek found myself wondering why he was here. BG didn't need his help. The other one however, Kitty... he wasn't so sure about.   
Alek blinked and his vision zoomed back in to normal level. Hadn't even let him get a shot off.   
There was a faint half-sound off to his right, among a forest of antennas further back on the roof, just before a third of the creatures exploded out of the shadows within. Claws outstretched, teeth bared, golden yellow eyes glowing, the werewolf came straight for him at speed that should have been impossible for its size.   
It was nearly upon Alek as its arms closed like a steel trap around... nothing. The werewolf, suddenly devoid of a solid object to kill its momentum, kept going for several more feet before skidding along the gravel on the roof. Alek was standing behind it, arms folded, wind catching his coat and throwing it back to reveal the sniper rifle in one hand and the shoulder rigs for the two Deagles he was wearing.   
The thing snarled and stood to face him. At its full height, it stood well over his head -and he's not short either. Gods this thing was huge.   
All the better. Alek grinned.   
"Nice try. My turn."   
The thing snarled again and stepped forward to swing a massive clawed hand at Alek, which he caught in mid air with right arm, stopping its force cold. Before it can even register Alek's action, he sidestepped and jerked its arm around, flipping it over his shoulder in a roll that ended with a crunch as its arm broke.   
The beast was howling in pain, not that Alek was listening. He was listening to three other figures -he wasn't sure if they were werewolves or humans, he couldn't tell over the noise this one was making- climbing up the fire escape ladder on the side of the building.   
"Sounds like your friends are coming. Too bad they won't find much of you." Alek smiled coldly at the spark of fear in the creature's eye as he drew one of the Deagles.   
He fired the silver hollowtip at point blank range and caught the shell casing before it hit the ground. No evidence and the gun was unregistered. Untraceable.   
By the time whatever it was reached the top of the ladder, Alek was five buildings away and fading fast into the darkening night. The ability to jump twelve meters straight up was something he had learned to use to full advantage. That and the augmented strength that allowed it made him wonder why he even pretended to be human. Because anyone who had ever seen him in a fight would tell you that he was definitely something else. Too bad they never realize how right they are until it's too late.   
Alek stopped atop a roof several blocks ahead of BG and Kitty and walked over to the edge to try and get his bearings. Despite his working for the CoM, he was still unfamiliar with this city. And it always seemed to be changing. He had been told reality was fluid here, he just wasn't sure he believed it just yet.   
A Kawasaki crotch-rocket sped by below him, headed back the way he had come. Alek figured he'd better head back as well. They'd done werewolves, but the bike might be someone important. And he still had a few questions for BG...  
  



	18. And Now To Set Off Those Booby Traps

**Chapter 16- And Now To Set Off Those Booby Traps...**  
  
  
Gorion finished his food.  
"Ah that is much better. But I still will not be at full power for another hour. Hmm let's see what's going on with those two."  
He looks down towards the forest and notices a very nasty boobytrap. About 150 to 200 feet directly in front of Tanetris and Karu.  
"Oh boy that could be a problem. Hmm let's see what can I do to solve that problem. So how do I solve the problem of a pressure sensitive mine field with spiked swinging logs that are also explosive and not get my self seen by Tanetris or noticed. Let's see, ah ha I will just deter them somehow. That is it."  
He flies down and pools out a portable hologram generator then sets it to project a hologram of a note for only Karu to see.  
  
To Karu   
There is a very nasty booby trap beyond this point of the forest so go around it and be careful.  
signed:  
Gorion   
P.S. Do not let Tanetris know I am here Thanks.  


******

BGMaster glanced down the street from the shadows, his cloak masking his face even further from sight. Right now he wanted to see who was coming to check on the dead werewolves. So far only a couple guys from the Kimiko army had come.   
A noise attracted his attention. _Kawasaki motorcycle. This could be another agent._ As the motorcycle flashed past, BG fired a shot. It spun out of control, skidding to a stop in the middle of the street. He strode over to it rapidly, pointing one of his deagles at the rider, who was just now getting up and brushing himself off.   
"Hatch?"   
He glanced at BG, rather annoyed. "Nice to see you too, BG."   
"Sorry. There's major infighting going on in the CoM high council right now, and my enemies sent the werewolves after me. I thought you were one of their agents coming to check what happened."   
"I see. Well, it seems you Mihoists tend to have slight... loyalty problems. Unlike us Kimiko folks. I assume you're working directly for Miho or something?"   
BG shrugged. "Yeah. So why exactly are you out here? It's not as if there's a DWC trying to destroy the universe or anything."   
"There's a huge mess starting again. I'm on damage control."   
"Ah. So it's bigger than just us. I figured as much. What do you know about what's going on elsewhere?"   
"Do you have a computer?"   
BG materialized one. "Will this do?"   
"Heh. Forgot you could do that. Well, go here." He tapped in a few keys.   
From Crsh667  
Time: 9pm EST  
Post # 1  
In need of assassin/omnipotent authors or anybody with reasonable power/skill  
Job: Will fill in later  
Pay: Depending on outcome. Will pay in anything, even beer  
-Thank you  
-Crash667  
-P.S. You will get a quick background check, and then given the address.  
P.P.S. No vibrating sheep of doom please   
BG checked the replies and frowned. "Moore's back? And into this mess?"   
"Looks like it."   
"Shit. Moore's probably gonna bring in a huge mess from whatever other dimension he gets it from."   
"That was my feeling. I was going to check it out after this."   
BG looked around. "Yeah. I think my pursuit is out of commission for the moment. I'll join you." He remembered something. "You still got that hockey stick?"   
Hatch grinned. "Yup. Just like the last mess, eh?"   
"Yeah. Let's go figure out what the hell is going on. Oh, and..."   
BG spoke a few cryptic words, and dual motorcycles appeared in the street.   
"You didn't think we were going without style, did you?"   
The two of them roared off. Moore was out there, along with a whole new gang, most of them lycanthropes. They were the old school, relatively speaking. It was time to figure out what the new guys were up to.   
In style, of course.  


*******

Young Queslin opens her eyes slowly, expecting the morning light to stream through painfully into her sleep-weakened mind. Her waking trains of thought do not allow her surprise at the lack of annoying light from sunrise, merely a sense of pleasure she finds rare at this time of day.   
The alarm clock is buzzing as Queslin swats idly at its 'off' button "I'm a-WAKE already! Kore wa baka!". She notes through half-lidded eyes that it's not morning any more, then notes hazily that she has had FAR too many hours of sleep, groans, and rolls out of bed.   
"AIEEE!"... Queslin reflects as she hits the floor undressed that there are certain disadvantages to having a granite floor in your apartment, and the fact that they are almost always freezingly cold is definitely one of them. She hurriedly dons her bathrobe and jumps in the shower, only to find the drain blocked by a huge amount of... Well, not quite hair.. more like.. fur... FUR!???   
"Stranger things have happened", she reminds herself, mindful of the events of recent months. She unblocks the drain, showers quickly, and carefully (some would call it painstakingly) arranges her hair after drying herself. As she leaves the bathroom, she notices something odd... The kitchen door is open, and she is SURE she left it closed last night. The only other people with keys to her apartment are Phaedrus and her best friend Kokomi.   
Queslin sneaks into the kitchen, hoping the visitor is Phaedrus, but gets a substantial shock when she's met face-to-face by a person-sized furry animal with three tails! It's kinda cute, but no Vorpal Bunny. She's busy deciding what exactly to do about the unexpected visitor when she is picked up by the waist, given a sneer, and is thrown out the window!   
Absurdly, the last thing Queslin sees as she sails through her own (luckily open) kitchen window is the three-tailed furry getting back to the carton of milk it had just removed from her fridge!   
As Queslin skillfully lands on the park slide outside her 2nd story apartment, she realizes with dread that she's probably going to have a very strange time of things.. again..   
Queslin's ears perk up as a Kawasaki pants perforator abruptly screams past - "Was that a trouser rocket? No matter... The noisiest and fastest-moving people usually know what the hell is going on." Queslin begins to follow the bike on the 150cc super-scooter she leaves parked out the front for desperate dashes for Jolt Cola in emergencies - it even runs on the stuff if the need arises...   
Up ahead it seems the Kawasaki has crashed. "Is that BG in the middle of the street!?" Queslin can't quite make out the other guy, and as she nears the pair, two matched motorcycles appear and the pair speed off.   
"Hey! Wait for me!!! Slow down! Hidoi-I!!"... Queslin zooms after the pair, while being careful not to let passers-by see more than they bargained for, tightening her bathrobe...  


*******

Karu glanced back at her partner-for-the-moment. Needless to say, he seemed a bit worse for the wear. It seemed the wolf the two were looking for had a penchant for placing multiple traps within a given 10-foot radius. So while Karu and Tanetris may have been able to work around the pit trap, they still had problems with the illusionary ninja beyond it. The wolf and fox came to an open clearing.  
"Aiya!" Karu jumped back, startled. Wouldn't you be if a holographic note popped out of nowhere?  
  
To Karu:   
There is a very nasty booby trap beyond this point in the forest, so go around it and be careful   
P.S. Do not let Tanetris know I am here-Thanks.   
Gorion   
  
"What is it?" Tanetris gave Karu a funny look.  
Karu's only reply. "Check yer sais"  
Said trap-detecting sais were glowing brightly red. And both of them knew what a trapped open clearing meant.  
"Landmines." voiced both of them, each echoing the others thoughts. Karu glanced at the trees ringing the clearing.  
"Probably trapped too."  
"Definitely." Tanetris's reply was terse, reflecting the tension in the air.  
"Still," Karu added, the kitsune's smile starting to come back, "I think we're more likely to survive what's in the trees than the land mines." With that, the kitsune grabbed a branch, and hoisted herself up into the tree. Mistake. Big Mistake. Once the six-tails had ascended into the tree's crown, the tree flew back, and launched her, a la catapult style, straight into the middle of the minefield.   
***BOOM***   
Karu, for the second time in 2 minutes, flew. Propelled by the explosion, the fox went flying across the minefield, landing...on the opposite side with an unceremonious *thump*  
Staggering to her feet singed tails and all, Karu yelled to Tanetris. "WHOAAH! WHATTA RUSH!"  


*******

WizardofKitty looked back and noticed Queslin was chasing after a motorcycle.  
"Hey Queslin!" she yelled and then chased after her. Strange that she was in some kind of robe, but people can't be too picky about other's appearances...besides, there were awfully worse clothes for others to be in. X.X   


*******

Tanetris watched the kitsune vault over to the trees, get tossed into the middle of the minefield, and winced slightly as the ground exploded, sending her flying. He was just glad the explosive was powerful enough to get her all the way across with just one. He saw her stagger to her feet singed tails and all, and heard her yell, "WHOAAH! WHATTA RUSH!"   
Tanetris just shook his head. _Crazy kitsune,_ he thought to himself. Taking the quarterstaff from his back, he muttered a few words, and began floating several feet in the air. As he was passing unhurriedly over the minefield, the werewolf used the chance to survey some of the land ahead. It wasn't much further to a cabin, but he was quite sure the worst trap was still ahead. Scanning further, he saw... No... Tanetris sighed deeply, for what did he see but that human again, floating over the trees just out of sight of the cabin, sipping a Ninjaburger soft drink. Persistent, that one..   
Finally landing next to Karu, she gave him a puzzled look, "Why so glum chum? If you really wanna do a minefield bounce, we can do it on the way back, didn't hafta use that thingy. It's really fun, if you don't mind your tails burning a little, but you've only got the one tail, so it wouldn't be so bad for you..." the kitsune went on as Tanetris slung the quarterstaff across his back and checked his sai to see how the road ahead looked. A deep red glow on the pommel to indicate the minefield behind them, and a slight yellow glow on the end of the blade. Either the last trap was very weak, which seemed unlikely, or it wasn't until just short of the cabin. At least they could walk that far without too much worry.   
The werewolf turned his attention back to Karu who was still talking, "...and then my cousin Dari, he's the one who married the 4-tails, but Dari, he just couldn't stand..."   
"Karu..."   
"...like he had any say, everyone knows that you can't go against tradition like that, it just isn't right, and besides, where would the fun be if..."   
"KARU!!!"   
"Huh? What's up Tannie?"   
The werewolf sighed deeply again. He had forgotten how hard it was keeping a kitsune's mind on one thing. He missed the Fanboy Wars. Sure it was a time of darkness and destruction across the lands of MegaTokyo, but he had been in the presence of Pirogoeth herself. He had even helped her, in his own limited way, and had been gifted with this katana. He hadn't needed a reward, but who was he to refuse something from Almighty Pirogoeth?   
Tanetris came back to himself as Karu poked him in the ribs. _Goddess,_ he thought to himself, _I'm as bad as her..._   
He cleared his throat and spoke, "We're clear of traps for awhile, let's get going. Oh, and whatever message you got from Gorion about the minefield, I'll thank him later. It's not much further to the cabin."  
  



End file.
